Kingdom Hearts III: Broken Kingdom
by Gelly-MacANDChibiJojo
Summary: A fateful accident leaves Sora and his friends stranded on a dying remnant of a world within worlds. Fighting for their lives against new creatures someone has put a capture bounty on Sora's head, as the survival of the universe is in their hands.S/K R/OC
1. Prologue

Hey, Gelly-mac here. Yeah, so here is the prologue to my new story. I'm trying something different this time.

**_Disclaimer: _**I do not own Kingdom Hearts, Only this story that I am writing and the characters that I made up. ^-^

**_Full Summery:_**

A year has past since Soraand his friends returned home. But after a small bottle land on the beach of their sunny and beautiful Island, the trio find that their journey isn't quite over just yet. When Sora's strange nightmares that include weird new creatures that are called _'Ghosts', _strange new powers for himself, a dieing world, a world withing worlds, large gates, a man dressed in black and an old evil sorcerer who goes by'The Unnamed One' start to become a reality, Sora begins to put his sanity into question once again. After horrific and strange happenings engulf the worlds, Sora, Riku and Kairi are set out to begin their next journey. But after a sudden and unexplainable accident occurs whilst on the Gummi ship, the trio along with, Donald, Goofy and King Mikey are propelled into a realm, the Broken Kingdom that Sora had been dreaming about. Separated and with no transportation, they are forced to journey into the worlds by many of the mysterious golden portals that appear at random times in the world.

The one thing that consists is the same poster that they all find in the world is a wanted note of Sora that had a $1 000 000 000 reward on it. But another thing that the Ghosts are the most deadly and brutal creatures that have ever come into existence. When they find that they only person who can vanquish these horribly creatures and that the survival of the entire universe are in the hands on one being named 'The Twilight Prince', they all set with the hardest task ever: to find this Prince, stand by him and protect him til the very end. But the main problem is, that this Prince wont even know that he is the legendary Twilight Prince.

Even with the help of new friends and new abilities to make the job easier, will they be able to carry out their mission and find the Twilight Prince before it's too late?

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The silence was defining. A dim candle light that was threatening to extinguish any moment was the only thing that lit the dark room. The walls were chipped, the windows were broken, the once possibly white tiles dusty and black with age, and the large black door that gives entrance and exit to the small room hung wide open, as if preparing to greet someone that were to walk right through them at any second. Outside the lightning roared as it ran across the night sky, and the rain was pounding against the roof, banging, screaming, shooting down against the wooden ceiling and practically trying to brake a hole through into the dimly lit room, wanting shelter for itself.

Lingering in the middle of the room was a figure that was desperately trying his hardest to focus on his studies and not get distracted by the ear-splitting screaming outside. The man had been sitting in the darkness for hours on end with the same thought running through his head. The thought had been with him for days now, lingering inside his bottled up mind, banging and yelling at him every time he let his consentration slip. Outside the creatures of the dark slithered across the surface of the tortured land. They were of every shape, size, and kind. And they certainly didn't help the man one bit. In fact, all they did was make the torture worse, because they reminded the man. Reminded him of his past, what is to come in the future, and all that he had done wrong.

In a cry of frustration the man let go of the papers that he was studying, threw them to the wall and buried his face in his hands. He found enough strength and sanity for the moment to think one straight sentence. _...they are restless tonight, much more then usual..._

It could have been either mere coincidence or impeccable timing, because right after the man finished thinking that sentence, the baning increased and the screaming grew louder. It always did when something was wrong, or near, or something had offended them. But, they coulden't possibly had heard him from this distance, could they? They creatures of the dark are strange and fascinating things, but all in all the most dangerous things in all of the universe, and in all the realm. The man then became awareof the soft muffled pounds of footsteps on tiles, walking quite fast to the small dark room that he made his study.

The approaching figure stride into the room with quite and angry waltz as he pushed the already wide doors out even more. The new figure mad his way over to the man and then huffed an angry breath and walked around the table surprisingly slowly for his mood and took his place at the foot of the table, opposite the sitting man. As if expecting that he would have to talk first, the man lifted his face out of his hands and asked, "Any news, Professor?"

"None, Master, it's just all the same as before." The figure known at this point of time as 'The Proffecor' answered him, causing the man—The Master—to only retake his original pose of when he walked in.

"Progress cant get any slower..." he murmured into his hands.

"I still don't understand why we need _him_, many up until this point have tried to rid of this boy forever. Yet, here we are, trying to obtain him and protect him. Keep him _alive._" The Professor argued and The Master slowly lifted his head to look The Professor straight in the eye and said in an almost warning tone, "We _need _him alive. We _need_ him on _our_ side."

"I try to understand, my Master, but what I don't understand is: what is so special about this one boy?"

"_He _is the Keblade Master." The Master simply said.

"_He _is a nuisance. Despite our best efforts, he won't be easy to capture, not without all those other wielders, the wizard, the knight, and the insignificant rodent that calls himself a King guarding him." The Professor pointed out.

"I do not deny that his capture will be difficult. After all, _she _was also difficult." The master responded and the Professor frowned on annoyance.

"Yes," he said, "Everything here has been quite slow after the escape of our latest prototype." The Professor almost growled. The Master turned his head angrily back to his papers up by the wall. The Professor seemed to notice this and went over to lift them up in his tight grasp. He flipped through the pages quickly before turning back to The Master, his face expressionless.

"So, the rumor is true then. The gates _have _opened up." The Master only nodded. "That's the first time they have unsealed them selves in one thousand years."

Right after The Professor finished that sentence the screams came again and the pounding was louder than before. "What about them?" he asked.

"What _about _them?" The Master responded in an angry tone.

"We can't keep this from them for much longer. Sooner or later they will find out. And they'll get angry."

"So let them!" The Master yelled back in an angry and defending tone. The Professor didn't even bat an eye.

"You of all people, Master, should know what will happen when they get aggravated. You know who they will go after, and that they will not stop until they get their prize."

They master turned his head to the floor, and after a long moment of just standing there, he added, "They arn't our only worries," but it was only a whisper. The Professor nodded and spoke in a loud knowing voice. "Yes, you are right, Master. Creatures and assassins of all shapes and sizes will be after him when word gets out. There isn't really much we can do about that."

The Master turned his head over to a small lamp table where the candle was sitting. After what seemed like an eternity, The Master got out of his debilitated chair and slowly stalked over into the dim candle light, coming out of the darkness for the first time. He waved his hand over the yellow flame, running it through, over, around and under it, feeling its warmth on his cold and pale skin. His hand then drifted to a faded piece of paper laying face down on the table. The Master then straightened up and turned his head to look The Professor straight in the eyes. The darkest blue you could ever imagine, a dark Sapphire, that were the colour of this mysterious mans eyes. They were dark and cold, almost like ice, and he had a long scar running down the right side of his face and over his eyelid so that it passed over one of his dark eyes.

With a deep breath he said, "It is only a matter of days, so we need to work fast. I do not deny that this would be much faster if we still had the experiment." and handed the faded piece of paper to The Professor. He scanned the paper closely a few times before asking, "How many and where?"

"Everywhere. And as for how many...I'll let you decide that." He answered.

"Yes, Master."

"Oh, everywhere _but _Disney Castle and the Islands. The last thing we need is the rat being on to us and what we are trying to do." The Professor nodded.

"But wait, surly he would know by now, wouldn't he?"

"Yes," Said The Master, "I have no doubt that he knows. Which is exactly why we need to take the strictest of precautions. Remember, we need him alive."

The Professor nodded once again before making his way to the doors but stopped for a moment when he hared his Master repeat again,

"_We need him alive." _

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Well there was the Prologue to my story. I hpe you liked it. And I hope it kept you guessing. ^-^

Good and bad reviews are always good so please Review. ^-^

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	2. So It Begins

Hello, Gelly-Mac here. Here is a new story, I thought I'd try something new. I will be adding an intro to this story shortly but I just wanted to get the first chapter over and done with. I hope you like it.

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The sun beamed down brightly on the small, over-vegetated island, warming each and every inhabitant of the tiny village who happened to be out at the time. The perfect Sandy beaches held beautiful shiny shells of every size and shape, and of every colour. Every now and again, the golden flakes would be approached by the clearest, bluest, _purest_ ocean water in the history of...well, _ever, _and then calmly and swiftly retreating away. She smiled brightly as she took in the small, humble domestic life of Destiny Islands. She wasn't going to deny that the beautiful islands were small and not really much, but it was _here_, it was her life. Destiny Islands had its drawbacks. Like, for example, the natural tropical temperature the forced everyone to sometimes run around in nothing but shorts and a T-shirt (sometimes even in winter, if they were lucky), and in summer the temperature _increased_. Drastically. And another thing, that would seem quite strange to some people (and incredibly annoying to others) is that it pores like you wouldn't believe! Well, this _was _a tropical island after all, which means that you can either take it or leave it. Monsoons and everything.

But, above all that, it the biggest thing that this tiny world was to her that mattered the most. It was home. _Home_... she thought as she continued to make her way through the dirt roads of the island. The though of home made Kairi very happy. _Immensely_ happy. But at the same time, she couldn't fight the little pin pick that, without fail, would stab painfully at her heart ever time she though about it. She knew why the thought of home made her sad. I made _them_ _all _sad. A weak smile appeared on her lips as her eyes landed on a large, crookedly grown tree on the beach. She kept her eyes locked on the beautiful poupu tree and she thought back...

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Kairi sat on the sandy beach, watching the waves crawl back and forward. The wind swirled around every lock of her wine red hair as she soaked up as much beaming sunlight humanly possible. A wide smile was planted onto her lips and her beautiful indigo eyes were shut. She couldn't believe it. They were back. It pretty much took all of her to keep the overwhelming joy from exploding out from her tight grasp, causing her to scream out in triumph and run down the street screaming and singing in joy like a mad woman.

But, most importantly: He was back. Don't get her wrong, she was glad to have her friend back, very glad, but she couldn't help but feel more courious to have him home with her had denied every and all suspissions by her friends that her feelings for him were far more than friendship, but now she knew that it would just be silly and immature of her to deny it any longer. She was in love with him, and has been since as long as she could remember.

Kairi's bright grew even wider as she continued to lay on the Sandy perfection. It wasn't until she felt something hit the side of her shoe that her eyes snapped open. Ina flash of lightning the long glass bottle was in her firm grip and she was carefully studying it. It wasn't until she saw the three black circles joined together to create an emblem that ever nerve in the body just stopped. She sat there frozen with wide eyes for what felt like an eternity until she finally shot up from the ground and was racing down the beach.

Kairi had never ran this fast before in her life. With a few stumbles and trips along the way, Kairi finally reached her destination. The first thing she saw was the unmistakable , and unforgettable, field of chestnut spikes that was called hair and the slick long mass of silver hair that was standing next to the brunette.

"Sora! Riku!" Kairi shouted, immedietly catching their attention. Kairi ran up to them, panting hevily after the long run down the beach.

"Hey, whats up?" Sora asked when Kairi reached them. She lifted her head up and held the moist bottle out in front of her. "Look,"

Sora's eyes opened wide as he asked, "From the king?" before snatching the glass message away from the panting girl. Sora yanked the cork out and tilted the bottle, causing the rolled up paper that was held inside to land swiftly on his gloved hand. In another swift movement Sora unrolled the paper with his two friends crowding around him to see what it says.

_Dear Sora, _

_It has been two months since we last spoke, and I am afraid that your journey isn't quite over yet. There isn't much I can tell you over a message in a bottle, because after all I can't risk this getting into the wrong hands. A Gummy ship will be sent to pick you three up sometime in the near future and transport you fellas to Disney Castle where we can discuss matters properly. Until then, be safe._

_Sincerely, King Mikey Mouse. _

They all stared blankly at the note with one million thoughts running through their head at a time. None of them knew what to make of it and none of them talked, until Riku broke the silence.

"And so it begins..." Riku murmured and went to stand by the water, kicking a pebble into the ocean in the mean time. Sora and Kairi on the other hand were still paralyzed. But Kairi seemed to snap out of it soon after and snatched the cream coloured paper out of Sora's frozen grasp.

"Wait a minute," Kairi re-read the note carefully, "...to pick you _three _up," Kairi smiled brightly and griped the paper to her heart. She was (no pun intened) jumping for joy.

"I can come with you guys? YES!" Kairi thrust the paper up in the air and began jumping around again. It wasn't soon after that Kairi noticed that Sora wasn't moving. His eyes were wide (she didn't even think his was blinking) and his hands were up as if holding onto an invisible piece of paper that only he can see. Kairi waved a hand infront of Sora's face in order to bring him back to Earth.

"Sora?" She asked, "Sora are you ok?" It didn't even look like he was breathing. Kairi frowned and snaped her fingers infront of Sora's eyes. Sora jumped a little almost lost his balance. "What?" He asked suddenly. Kairi's face was now full of concern.

"Are you ok?" She asked sweetly. Sora didn't answer, so Kairi just shock it off and continued.

"Isn't this great? I can actually came with you instead of staying behind here. This is great!" Sora didn't bat a eye or even move. He just stayed quiet and stared blankly into space. Kairi tried again, "Sora?" She asked, "Are you sure you're ok? It says I can—"

"I know what it says." Sora snapped and cut her off and spoke for the first time in a long time. It was strange, His tone was almost a snarl, very un-Sora like. _This _managed to catch Riku's attention as her turned around to look at his two friends. Sora's expression was hard and his eyes were cold, his jaw was tight and lips were held together in a hard line. Kairi didn't understand why his expression frightened her so much. She quickly turned her gaze to the ground. "I'm sorry." She apologized, "I was just excited is all. I—"

"No," Sora cut her off once again, only this time his tone was back to how it normally was, "I shouldn't have snapped like that...I'm sorry." Kairi slowly lifted her head up to see Sora smiling warmly down at her, so she returned the smile. Sora and Kairi continued to gaze into each others eyes for a long moment. As apposed to Kairi, Sora wasn't feeling any sort of excitement or happiness at all. Only sadness and most of all fear. Images of the last painful two years ran through his head, and he couldn't help but ask himself; what if all that was to happen again. Sora loved Kairi More then anything in the world, he couldn't take it if she were to be taken away from him again. _I don't want you to come, Kairi. I don't know what I would do if you ever got hurt... _Sora didn't say that out loud, he thought he was too much of a coward to. So instead he just went with it, pulling on fake happiness and enthusiasm whenever he was around her.

They all knew that all they could do at the moment was wait.

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That was ten months ago. And Sora and Riku had been home for a year. A _year_. They all had spent the first three months after they had received that letter as nervous wrecks. All the king had said in the letter is that he would be sending a gummie sometime in the near future, nothing else, so they basically had _no_idea in the world when that would be. But still, a year had past and still no gummie. But all in all, they used the time that they had wisely. Sora had spent the last year (much to his dismay) training Kairi so that she would be ready when the time finally came. They were all very surprised at how much of a quick learner Kairi was. Something popped into Kairi's head, catching her off guard, when she thought of Sora.

He wasn't there.

It was the first day of the new school year and our little spiky-haired, hyperactive hero was no where to be found.

Kairi growled to herself as she reached the school gates of Destiny High. There were a lot of things that Kairi didn't know. For example, she didn't know who's homeroom she was going to be in this year, she didn't know what the weather will be like tomorrow, she didn't know when the king would just put them out of their misery and show up! She didn't know what she was getting for her birthday this year, and finally she didn't know where Sora was let alone when he will choose the haul his lazy butt out of bed and actually make an effort to be on time for the first day of school!

But above all that, there was one thing that she knew:

_Today is going to be interesting..._

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So here was the first chapter. Did you like it? More coming shortly.

Please review ^-^

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	3. Race Against Time

Hey, me again. So here is the second chapter to my story. I hope you like it... ^-^

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"I'm late! I'm late!! I'M LATE!!!" All around him was calm, peaceful, untouched and undisturbed island life. That is, of course, before him and his chaotic screaming came in to the picture. He was late for the first day of school! He knew very well that if he was even three seconds late through the gates he would not hear the end of it from his calm and sweet (at times) mother. He didn't want to even _think _about the ear full he would be getting from Kairi. Sora's shoes pounded on the dirt road with a _**HISS **_sound as he continued to zoom through the streets.

He was everywhere. His hair was a mess, even more than it usually is (yes it's possible!), his shoelaces were untied, the belt of his blue pants wasn't even done up, one sleeve of his long sleeve shirt was rolled up to his elbow and the other wasn't, some buttons were undone and only half of his shirt was tucked into his pants and his blue plaid tie hung loosely and crookedly around his neck. Sora would occasionally trip over his shoe laces or even his own feet and come crashing to the ground, but he would jolt back up to his feet and keep running, not even stopping to attempt to fix his laces.

As Sora continued to run he would every now and again knock over something from a near-by market store. Sora would trip, stumble, wave his arms in the air, spin around and run backwards, throwing out a "I'm so sorry!" or "I'll pay for that!" or "Send me the bill!" and even "That wasn't me, it broke by it's self!" and just kept on running through town like he was involved in a one man stampede.

The thing about living on a small island is that everyone knows each other, so Sora had himself a little bit a reputation around there. Sora is, and has always been, known as a bit of a lazy person. He was hardly ever on time for _anything, _whenever someone was looking for him they would either find him asleep or eating, he never paid much attention in school and was almost always slacking off. So anyone who didn't know him very well would probably still judge him by these characteristics.

So the townsfolk continued to watch the frantic 16 year old bolt through the streets and think that he was still the lazy, quiet slacker that they knew and loved...well _some _of them loved. As Sora ran he had only one thing running through his head:

_I am so dead! _

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"He is so dead!"

It was 8:56 and still no sign of Sora. The entire student body had assembled into the auditorium for the start of year assembly, where they will be finding out which homeroom they will be in this year and which classes. School officially starts at nine, so Sora had pretty much 4 minutes to get there.

A few of the other students turned their heads and jumped at the red-head's furious outburst. "He knows its the first day of school, how can he be so careless as to be late _today _of all days?!" Kairi continued despite her friends' many attempts to calm the fuming girl down.

"Kairi, relax, people are starting to stare..." Selphie tried but was once again cut off, like the many other times Kairi got like this. But only this time she actually was able to get a whole sentence out, as apposed to the other times that Kairi was this mad, Selphie would be lucky to get even a whole _word_ out!

"How can he be so careless?" Kairi asked, again, to no one in particular, "Ugh!" Kairi threw her arms up in the air and resumed pacing back and forward like she had been doing about 10 minutes ago. A small part of Kairi had known that today might end up like this, but everything else had said prayers every waking second for a week that the small part would be solemnly proven wrong. Lets just say...some things don't always turn out as you'd hoped. So Kairi paced, and paced, and paced as she thought of all the different ways that she will murder Sora.

"Kairi," this time it was Riku's turn to try and communicate. "come on, is it really much of a shock that this would happen?" Unfortunately, he was right.

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_Meanwhile..._

"Almost there..." Sora muttered to his self as he neared the big silver gates of Destiny High, success almost in his grasp. Still without stopping Sora checked his watch again, 8:59. Ok, so he had only 60 seconds before the gates closed to get himself inside, run along the incredibly long path way, get into the main building, climb up the stairs, go down yet another unbelievably long hall way, make a right, a left, a right, another left, another right and then down _another _MASSIVE hall way and through the auditorium doors, find his seat and make like he had been there all along. All before the principle steps on to stage. Easy, huh? ...lets hope so.

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"30 seconds," Informed Tidus of how much time Sora had to save his life from Kairi.

"He'll make it. I mean, It's Sora, ya." Wakka tried to encourage them.

"Yeah, he's always fashionably late, so we have nothing to worry about." Said Selphie.

"He's doomed." Tidus, Selphie and Wakka all turned to Riku with death glares on their faces when Kairi buried her face in her hands. Riku noticed the daggers Selphie was sending him and mouthed, "What?" to her. The brunette's expression became more feirce as she growled, "Not helping,"

"Not lying," Riku shot back as Tidud called,

"10 seconds!"

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"10 SECONDS!!!!" Sora frantically screamed as he ran through the building. All the clocks that hung on the walls of Destiny High were patched into the system so that the students can tell how much time they _actually _have, and Sora took the liberty to synchronise his own watch so that when ever he decided to ditch class, he would know exactly when to make an appearance so that no one would know that he was gone. Everything in that school was run through a system. Really. _Everything._

In 5 seconds the auditorium doors will manually shut, and Sora knew that if that happiness and he is still on the outside of them, that would be the end of his life forever. And above all that, he was sill a few halls away.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon,"

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"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," Kairi prayed with her eyes shut tight and her fists curled up in tight balls. He was never going to make it, she knew it. _Come on, you can make it, I know you can..._Kairi whispered in her head as she continued to pray. Selphie, Riku, Tidus and Wakka had all stopped trying to consult her and just sat quietly in their seats as the happy buzz of ecstasy lingered all around them from their fellow class mates. Kairi opened her eyes once again and stared up at the large white clock that was mocking her, and silently stared to count the remaining seconds down.

"Three..."

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"Three," Sora ran.

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"Two..."

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"One!" Sora made one final leap for the large dull red doors, but only hit them head on. It was officially nine o'clock and this was when Sora knew that he had lost.

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Please review.

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	4. More Bright Ideas

Yay, Chapter three! I'm quite suprised that I've made this much progress. Yeah so here is the third chapter of the story. once again I hope you like it... ^-^

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Kairi watched in horror and in anger as the large red doors slammed shut, meaning that Sorawas officially late on the first day of school. As the principle stepped on to stage and gave his start of year speech, Kairi spent that time coming up with a lecture that she was going to give to Sora. She also knew very well that his mother wont hesitate in holding back on her own strong series of words that she was going to torment her son with, but not only that but a student being late today of all days will result in a serious penalty. Sora would be getting about a months detention in the minimum.

After a while, Kairi thought to give a rest to plotting how she was going to brutally murder her spiky-haired friend, and actually started to pay attention to what her principle was saying.

"...during these next few days you all will start to notice some things will be different around these halls..." Kairi tried to stay focused but quickly zoned out not long after, but was then brought back to reality with a bang when she heard her fellow school members groan loudly at something the principle said.

"Now, students, when you hear your name you are to come onto stage and collect two pieces of paper, your timetable and a map of the school. You are getting a map of the school because of, as I mentioned before, most of the room numbers have been changed, and of course, the obvious reason, for the new seventh graders that are joining us this year." Most of the students groaned again.

"I will be calling you up in alphabetical order and of grade group."

The principle started with grade 12 and made his way down. After what seemed like forever, the principle finally reached the tenth grade, this is when Kairi started paying attention again.

"...Aberson...Acen...Aileen..." It when on like that for a while, and Kairi stupidly let her mind drift to Sora again. She didn't want to believe that him being late was because he slept in or something, or he dawdle his way there. There had to be a reasonable explanation. Didn't there? "...Amaya," Kairi jumped at the mention of her last name, and turned her head to Selphie who gave her a slight push and mouthed, "Go!" and then, "Good luck,"

Kairi stepped on to stage, received her timetable and map, and then went back to her seat. That was really all that was to it. When Kairi was firmly back into her seat she took her time to study the new map. She never thought that it would be possible, but the school was even _more_confusing than it was before! Figuring not to linger on the scholl's re-formation, Kairi's eyes then went to her new timetable. As if by some miracle the universe had suddenly decided to be nice to her this year. She had her most favorite teacher ever for a homeroom teacher and to top it all of, her first class was PE! Not that she ever liked PE, but she thought that she didn't want to start thinking too hard just yet. Kairi turned her attention back to the principle.

"...Gallagher," Kairi heard the name for her friend and watched Riku ascend to the stage. When he came back to his seat Riku sent Kairi a worried glance and Kairi then returned it when she realised who's name will be coming up soon.

"...Gibbson...Hank..." Kairi's breath caught as her other friends froze.

"Hikari," There was only silence as nobody got up from there seats, the teens around them started to whisper to each other when the Principle repeated, "Hikari," only to receive silence again.

"Oh no..." Kairi, Selphie, Riku, Tidua and Wakka all breathed simultaneously. The Principle then became annoyed and raised his voice.

"Hikari? Sora Hikari!" The still silence lasted for only three more seconds before a loud explosion filled the large room. Rubble fell from the high sealing of the stage, a short scream of fright came before someone fell from the roof and landed right next to the podium with a loud _**CRASH **_and an "Oomph!" (Three guesses who it was).

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_Moments earlier..._

Sora had just heard his name being called by the Principle of the High School. Sora had been sitting outside the auditorium doors for over half an hour, quietly awaiting his punishment. "Hikari," He heard again. After a long and painful montage session of many failed plans on how to get in to the school auditorium, Sora had pretty much given up completely at this point. Sora squeezed his eyes shut and started panicking on the inside. That is, until an idea that would actually work and keep his dignity intact, one that was long awaited for, finally popped into his fuzzled mind. Sora felt a little light bulb spark to life inside his head and he quickly rose to his feet. Sora smiled a bright and toothy smile then made a wild dash for it to the roof top of the high school.

The roof top of Destiny high is and has always been Sora's favorite part of the school. Intact, it was actually the _only _part of this brick and marble covered hell hole that he didn't loath. It was private and confined, you got the greatest view up there, it had a lot of loose brick's that he could just pull out and hide things in (which came in handy when Sora had a major test coming up one day and he needed something to boost his knowledge right before it started) and the entire sight was covered in pot plants and flowers. But the best part was that the ventilation shaft that stuck out of the roof led to almost every part of the school. All he needed to do was find the right one that would lead him to the auditorium, then after that all he needed to do was used the _Aeroga _spell to safely propel him to the ground.

Lucky for Sora, this vent was one that he had used many times in the past.

It took only a matter of seconds for Sora to find the right ventilation shaft and he was on his way. Sora was only falling for a few seconds before the tunnel became more slanted and he his falling was transformed into a smooth slide. As Sora slid he counted the floors and rooms that he pasted on his journey that he had memorised exactly by now. In what was only seconds after he left the roof, Sora neared his destination. He started to use spells to slow down his glide, but then something strange happened.

Just as Sora was about to cast the _Aeroga _spell something else happened. There was a strong burning sensation deep in his heart as his palms began to glow a golden yellow light. His breathing caught and his face became warm, his eyes began to hurt as the burning sensation deep within him grew stronger. Sora focused his attention on his glowing palms when they glowed brighter and bigger, small radiant golden sparks began to linger and extend around his arms.

"What?" Sora asked in shock when the yellow light shot forward furiously in a sea of golden sparks and and exploded suddenly around the small ventilation shaft, ripping a giant hole right through the middle of it . Sora screamed in shock when he slid right up to the large hole and fell straight through.

"AAHHHHH!!" With a large mass of rubble and dust Sora landed hard and painfully on the stage of his school auditorium, scaring his principle and probably all of the student body half to death. After a moment of just lying there, Sora coughed and brought himself into and upright sitting position whilst placing one hand on his head and the other on the small of his back and rubbing two of the many places on his body that was now in terrible pain due to his large fall.

"Owww..." Sora groaned before opening his squinted eyes and staring horrified at his school principle, that was glaring angrily and disappointingly down at him. Sora flashed him a nervous and toothy smile before stuttering, "Uh...hey there, Principle Yamamoto...um, nice day today...isn't it?" The principle didn't say a word. All he did way grab a fist full of paper and thrust them angrily at the smiling boy sitting in a pile of rubble on the ground. Sora took them hesitantly before the principle said, "Your map and timetable, Mr Hikari." And didn't say another word. Sora had been getting into these sorts of situations since the seventh grade, and many more years earlier in Elementary school. But nothing like falling from the sky at just the appropriate moment, so the principle just basically gave up at that exact moment of the explosion of punishing Sora. Detention wont stop any of these stunts.

Sora reluctantly got to his feet when the principle continued on with calling the students to the stage, quickly massaged his throbbing neck, dusted himself of, descended the stage and made his way to find his seat. In a far row, the other five watched Sora stumble his way over to them with wide eyes and mouths hanging wide open, not one of them speaking until Riku broke the silence.

"Well, he certainly knows how to make an entrance." A few people that were sitting near by snickered at that comment. Kairi turned her head to glare at the very dusty boy that came and sat next to her. Sora cleared his thought and smiled slightly before saying, "Hey guys." and turned his attention back on the stage. As Kairi stared in amazement at her friend she couldn't help but crack a grin at how little he cared about what just happened. Sora almost never cared what people thought of him (except for Kairi, but he would never admit that to her) and had pretty much no self respect at times like these. Sora suddenly turned his gaze to Kairi and caught her smiling at him, which there caused him to pull his lips into the giant goofy, carefree grin that she loved so much.

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But at this moment, the six weren't aware of three pares of watching eyes hidden in the shadows of the room.

"Well, that was...interesting?" said one voice. I was deep and lazy.

"He knows how to make an entrance." Commented another voice. This one was loud and had a strange tone to it.

"And knows how to hurt himself..." Sighed another. This voice was high pitched and sounded almost wise.

"Good to see the big idiot hasn't really changed much," said the loud voice.

"Hey! Don't call him an idiot," argued the lazy voice.

"Right, sorry. _You're _the idiot, _he's _a lazy dofus that we put up with time after time!"

"Why're you always puttin' people down?"

"Why do _you _stick up for everyone?!"

"Fellas, enough!" The high pitched voice broke through the argument, immediately shutting up the two, then went on talking in a calm, confident tone. "He's safe, and that's all that matters to us at the moment. The good thing is that nothing has tried to come after him..._yet_." He added the last word in a quiet and terrified tone.

"But, wait," The lazy voice cut in, "how can we actually be sure that Sora's the one. We kinda have not much information, so we can't really be sure." He pointed out.

"Yeah, what proof do we have?" asked the loud voice an also the same strange scared tone. "He's right, we can't be sure."

"I ran it by Merlin and Yen Sid. It's true. Sora's the one..." Those last three words chilled all three of them to the bone. They continued to stand there watching and staring the spiky haird boy protectively before retreating further into the shadows.

* * *

Here you go. Now what could those mysterious people in the shadows be talking about???

Any guesses on who they are??

Anyhoo, I will be adding the intro/prolouge next, ok?

I know I do things kinda backwards but there is always a reason for my insanity. ^-^

Please review.

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	5. Anger and Bad Drivers

Hello! It's me again here with the forth chapter of my story. This chapter is a little negative in the begining... So I fixed it up with adding comedy in the end! ^-^

Once again, I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

Enjoy! ^-^

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"What HAPPENED?!?!"

Was hared right after the students departed the auditorium, scaring and frightening a few people and making others jump. A poor spiky haired boy was being held captiveup against a wall with a red head who positioned her hands on the wall on either side of his body, blocking any source of exit for the boy. Many who passed by would occasionally stop and stair at the couple against the wall, the red heads fuming expression, and the chestnut boys frightened expression. Their friends just thought that it was safe to stand as far away from the couple as they could get and still remain in hearing distance.

Sora turned his head to the ground, seeming suddenly _very _interested in the linen plaid floor, far enough that his eyes disappeared behind his bangs and shieldingthem from Kairi's death glance.

"I, Uh, Um..." He studdered, searching rapidly for words.

"WELL?!" She demanded again, causing Sora to bow his head lower (if it were possible at this point).

"Um...Kairi?" Sora lifted his head up to reveal only one cerulean blue eye, eyebrows scrunched together in a worried stance. "Yes?" Kairi answered in a 'I'm waiting!' way.

"Could you please let me go so that we can talk properly?" He asked in a scared tone.

"No I CANNOT!" She yelled, "Because once I do you'll make a run for the hills and I wont see you again for another three weeks!"

Sora just stared blankly at her, blinking once, twice before asking in a hushed disbelieving tone, "How do you come up with this stuff? And what would make you think that I would do _that_?"

"Well wont you?"

"No!" Kairi sent Sora a 'yeah right' look before he moved his eyes from side to side and fixed, "...maybe."

Sora broke his glance with Kairi and turned his head to the side to see a group forming, staring in awe at them. Great. Just what he needed, an audience for the show. And he though things couldn't possibly _get _any worse. Although, Sora didn't really much mind being pinned up against a wall from Kairi, and she didn't mind it either, but none of them will ever admit _that _out loud. Within the crowed Sora spotted the guy that he sits next to in mathclass staring at the two of them with a sly and smug expression. His eyes darted from Sora, to Kairi, back to Sora, back to Kairi, then to Soraaging and sent him a wink. Sora's face turned red as he sent the guy a death glare, but the boy only burst into hysterics and walked away.

Sora squirmed a little before asking (whining) again, "Kairi, Could you _please _let me go?"

"Now, Give me one good reason why I should do that?" She asked, her voice angry and hard.

"Because people are starting to stare."

For the first time in ages, Kairi turned her eyes away from Sora's and scanned the area around them. It looked like the entire 10th grade was there! Embarrassed, Kairi grumbled a quick, "Fine." then realisedher captive and stepping a goodmeters length away from him. But if Sora though his interrogation was over, oh boy was he wrong. Kairi folded her arms over her chest and continued to stare at him. "Now, are you going to answer my question?"

For some unknown reason, everything seemed to calm down quite a bit aster the crowd departed. Even Riku, Tidus, Selphie and Wakka though it was safe to approach their friends now.

"Well go on," Kairi said when the others came to stand by next to her.

"Uh..." Sora stuttered. "Wh-what was the question again?" he asked weakly and from the corner of his eye he saw Riku slap himself on the forehead. Kairi rolled her eyes and repeated,

"What. _Happened?_"

Sora started fiddling with his fingers and stuttered, "Well, lets see... Uh, my alarm clock didn't go off, we didn't have any cereal and my mom left early for work so I had to make sure—"

"No, no, no." Kairi cut him off, "I don't mean 'why ere you late', I mean 'what happened in the auditorium?'"

Sora's fists clenched up absentmindedly when he remembered that golden light and the pained sensation in his heart. "What do you mean?"

"You fell from the ceiling, Sora. I've seen you do some pretty outrageous things before, but that was just...strange." Kairi trailed off into thought remembering the event that happened before in the auditorium. The loud explosion, the rubble, the dist, Sora literally falling from the sky...

But the one thing that made her most confused, was that light. It was there for a second, only a second. Most people in that hall wouldn't have seen it, but that was because they weren't looking. But Kairi saw it. It was, no contest, the most strangest thing that Kairi had ever seen. Ever. And that says a lot.

Kairi was knocked back into reality with a bang when she hared someone speak next to her.

"But it was pretty cool." They all turned their heads to Tidus who sent Sora that complement, and stared at him blankly. "You know, showing up late and falling right out of nowhere, landing on stage, disrupting the start of school assembly and walking right out of there without even a detention slip."

Tidus received a weak smile from Sora, but he couldn't understand why it seemed like he was apologizing to him. But he found out when he turned his head to the side to see Kairi giving him a death stare, the evil eye, daggers and just about ten million other things hidden under there. _This _was enough to make the blond boy step back a few feet and stammer, "Uh...yeah, um, I think I'll go now and, uh...leave you guys alone." And with that he took off with Selphie and Wakka trailing close behind him.

Riku decided to stay, because he too though that it was a little strange—even for Sora, that was a little _too _out there. Riku and Kairi continued to stare at Sora until he finally popped and snapped,

"Look, I don't know what happened, OK! One minute I was sliding down the vents and the next I was laying on the stage of the auditorium in a pile of rubble, no idea what happened in between ,OK! Everything went blank!" Sora wasn't quite sure why he was lying to his two best friends, the only people in the world—perhaps the entire universe—who would understand. And he certainly didn't know why he was so angry all of a sudden, but his voice was getting louder and louder by the second.

"And I know your assumption on why I was late, it isn't that hard to guess. Lets see, My alarm clock went off before noon so therefore it was _far _too early for me, so I had to reset it consequently making me late. Or maybe I thought that I could get off on the first day of school and go hide somewhere and slack off."

"Sora..." Kairi tried but got cut of.

"No, I've got it. I spent all my money at the store on junk food, but then as I was leaving I knocked over a nearby stand, destroying the display. So the shop owner made me pay for it all, but since I didn't have any money left I had to work of paying for those things. Or maybe this, this, this, this, _this_!" Sora exclaimed.

"Sora," Riku tried. Sora was now starting to attract attention.

"Well if you're so smart then how about you try to predict something reasonable and serious for once? Huh?" He almost yelled and the other two tried to brake through their friends' angry exclamation, only to fail miserably.

"How about trying this one on for size? Lets say that my alarm clock went off at just the right time, and I was up and ready for the first day, because I wouldn't really want _this _out come." He gestured to Riku and Kairi. "But when I reach down stares I find that my mom's left early for work, with only a note of the kitchen table to warn me. And because she wasn't there there wasn't anyone one to drive poppie to school!"

Kairi suddenly felt a shred of guilt at that statement. Her eyes turned sincere as she whispered, "Sora, I...I didn't know." For some unknown reason, that seemed to make Sora even more angry. He himself didn't even know why.

"No, that's right, you didn't know. But let me ask you something." He seemed to be looking at only Kairi now. "Do you really think that I would be the type of person to leave a _six year old _by herself in a big empty house? And do you think that I wouldn't push all my other responsibilities aside to go and drop her of at a neighbours house and make sure that my_ six year old cousin _was safe? Huh?" Sora kept emphasising 'six year old'.

"Sora, man, we didn't know. We didn't think about that..." Riku tried to explain but he only managed to make Sora angrier yet. Kairi's eyes were practically _glued _to Sora, she felt as if someone had pushed a dagger right through her heart. She had never felt so guilty before in her life. She had been so angry before she haddn't even stooped to think of a reasonable explanation, and now she's hurt Sora.

"Oh course you didn't. You just think that I'm just lazy old Sora, the guy who just shreds his responsibilities and pushes them aside in a dark corner as if they were nothing! And if you still think that, then the reality is that you actually don't know much about me any more at all!"

At this point Kairi felt like she was going to cry, and Riku was a mixture of sad and mad that he would actually have the nerve, after all they had been through in the past two years, that he would still judge Sora by those characteristics. The loud ring of the school bell signaled that it was the end of school was enough to make both Kairi _and _Riku jump. Sora was about to add something else but thought against it and just walked away. Riku and Kairi just simply stood there for a moment before glancing at each other and chasing after their fuming friend, call in his name.

Once they were outside they managed to catch Sora half way down the street, but when they got there all they did was try to shout apologies over Sora's shouting. They turned a few heads of the students and people who were passing by. Sora, Kairi and Riku were so into their argument that they didn't even notice a small red ship flying over one hindered miles an hour fly passed above their heads.

--------------------------------

The small red ship was zooming and swerving out of control, barely missing various trees, houses and other valuable structures that cannot be replaced so easily. A voice could be hared outside the ship.

"Put it in park! PUT IT IN PARK!!" Frantically screamed one voice. In fact it was the same voice that belonged to the loud voice hared earlier in the shadows of the auditorium.

"Which one's the park?!" Yelled the deep, lazy sounding voice also from before.

"The big red button!" Yelled the high-pitched voice.

"They're all red!" The ship swerved around again, knocking a TV antenna off of a nearby house. They were know flying dangerously close to the ground in a small forrest of trees. At least they were away from the houses, but there was nothing to save the poor trees that they swerved past.

"It's that one, you big palooka!" screamed the loud one.

"Forget the park, we need the brakes!" advised the high voice.

"I don't know which one that is, either!"

"The big one!!"

"There's three the same size!"

"The one on the left!" There was a pause. "No, not your left, _my _left!" They did a barrel roll.

"The left! THE LEFT!!" Screamed the high-pitched voice, only to hear a, "Which way's your left?!"

"It's the other side, you Goof!!" Screamed the loud voice.

There was another moment of silence before the high-pitched voice and the loud voice screamed together, "NO NOT REVERSE!!!"

The red ship came to an abort stop, and stayed there hovering in mid air for a few moments before the little red ship zoomed backwards faster then it was before. Screams of fright were hared as the ship flew backward out of control, smashing some of the teal coloured structures before finally hitting the ground and sliding backward, scraping along the dark brown forrest floor. The ship tilted upward and began to slow down, and after a few seconds of being on a vertical angle, the ship let out a mechanical screech before falling on a straight angle back on the ground and finally stopping. Smoke was coming out of the engines and pretty much every place else, the metal was dented, some of the paint was gone and scratched elsewhere, and it was missing some pieces here and there.

The mechanical door to the ship practically fell open and a short figure dressed in blue descended the ship, yelling,

"That is the LAST time I EVER let _you_ drive, Goofy!!" He took his hat off and beat it against his knee in order to get some of the dirt and rubble off. "Of all the times for Chip and Dale to take a vacation..." He grumbled.

Another taller figure retreated the ship, stumbling here and there. "Gawrsh, that was only my first time flying a Gummi, Donald." He moped.

"Yeah," Donald snorted, "first and LAST!!"

"It's not like you could do any better," Goofy challenged.

"WHAT?!" He squarked, "I offered to put the Gummi ship on auto pilot! But no_oooooooo_, _someone _wanted _this _trip to do his Drivers Ed. exam!"

Another short figure stood at the foot of the door, holding his head in his hands. Donald and Goofy were now involved in a argument, both yelling at the other at the same time. In fact it wasn't that much different to the argument Sora, Riku and Kairi were in somewhere away from there.

The figure rubbed his two large black round ears that were very sore, and the loud, restless bellowing of the two below didn't really help one bit. He dizzily tried to make his way down, but hit his foot on a piece of metal that was sticking upward and began sliding down head first to the ground.

"AAHHHHH!!" he screamed before he slid onto the ground of the forrest floor, landing head first in the dirt. This caused Goofy and Donald (who was trying to shock Goofy with his staff) to stop shouting and snap their heads around.

"YOUR MAJESTY!!" They both screamed in worry before darting over to their king. "Your Majesty," They rolled Mickey on to his back and he began to blink his eyes rapidly. "Your Majesty,"Goofy said, "Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?" Goofy held up three fingers and Mickey tilted his head to one side and stared dizzily through narrowed eyes at them before answering,

"Uh, eleven?"

Goofy shrugged, "Ah, close enough."

Donald whacked Goofy over the head with his staff before casting a _heal _spell on the King, himself and Goofy. King Mickey sat up, shock the cobwebs out of his head and looked around. "Well," He said, "We're here. Safe and in one piece." His eyes then fell onto the ship at was all but in flames, and added, "In most cases. Oh, and I'm sorry to say this, Goofy, but you failed your test." Goofy sank his head to the floor and looked chest fallen.

"Don't worry, there's always next time." The king added, hoping to give his friend a little more confidence. He then turned to Donald,

"Donald?"

"Yes, your Majesty?"

"Is there a chance that you can cast a repair spell on the ship?"

"Of course!" He quacked, "One moment please." After a few waves of his staff, another quack, and thrusting in in the air, a warm blue light exploded outward from his staff and flew at the ship, swallowing it hole. After another quick explosion, the smoke cleared and the ship was shown with fresh paint, dents gone, and it was even sparkling here and there. The small red Gummi ship that was threatening to fall to pieces just moments before, now looked as good as new.

"Well, that's better!" The King said pleased, jumping to his feet. "I guess we can just leave this parked here for now," Donald snorted at the word 'parked' and Goofy frowned at him, still a bit upset upon failing his test. "We should go looking for Sora and the others." Donald and Goofy both nodded and the trio set of further into the green.

* * *

Hello again! I hope you liked this chapter. And know you know who the mysterious voices in the shadows were! It's funny, when I was writing that part, I thought that I made it obvious who they were...Oh well.

Anyhoo, thank you to the people who reviewed! I really appreiciate it!!

Please review.

push the button...you know you want to...

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	6. Reunited

Hey! It's Gelly-mac again. Obviously.

Yeah, so anyway here is the fifth chapter to my story. I hope you like it.

Once again I do not own Kingdom Hearts. ^-^

* * *

"How much longer?!"

"I'm sure not much."

"But it's been hours!"

"No it hasn't,"

"Yes it has!"

"No it hasn't!"

"YES IT HAS!!! It's not _my _fault that you can't keep track of the time, Goof!"

"I can too keep track of the time!"

"No you can't,"

"Yes I can!"

"No you can't!"

"YES I CAN!!"

"Fellas! Enough!" _That _loud out burst from the King was enough to immediately shut up the two bellowing, over sized dog and duck, take a step back and freeze in that current stance. This was brought on because the King almost _never _raises his voice, especially at his friends, unless some this happened to make him angered or annoyed. And the look he was now giving the Wizard and the knight told them that it was somewhere in between the two. After a few seconds of just standing there, Donald and Goofy simultaneously turned their heads to the ground, put their hands behind their backs and kicked an imaginary pebble on the ground.

"Sorry..." They apologized together.

The king steadied himself, took a deep breath and spoke in a calm voice, "I'm sure we arn't far from thew town know."

"But all we have been doing is going around in circles for the last hour!" Donald complained again.

"It's only been twenty minutes, Donald." Mickey corrected.

"Oh."

"See!" Goofy said in an I-told-you-so way. Donald scowled him and looked about ready to go into attack mode when Mickey shouted, "Don't start again!"

Donald shock it off and continued. "Twenty minutes or not, all we've been doing is going around in circles!" He repeated. "I swear we've been in this part of the woods five times now! Look, over there, that's the same boulder sized rock that looks like a lemon, that tree that looks like Santa, and that bush over there shaped like Batman!" Goofy and Mickey simply stared at Donald, blinking a few times at that statement before turning their heads and staring disbelievingly and wide eyed at the three land marks that their feathery friend pointed out.

"See!" Donald imitated Goofy.

"Well, Uh..." Mickey moved his hand to his head, "Maybe we should mark the trees, so that we know which parts we've been in before."

"_...Maybe you should!_" Said a voice from a distance, amazingly coincidentally straight after the small King finished his sentence. Mickey turned around to face his two friends, who had _very_ confused looks on their faces and looking around the green sanctuary, trying to figure out where that voice came from.

"That didn't come out of your mouths," Mickey pointed out.

"..._No!_" The voice answered again.

"What keeps doing that?" Goofy asked, swishing his head around frantically.

"Sora!"

Donald, Goofy and Mickey all turned to the same direction at the same time. It seemed that that was where the voice had come from. Mickey turned around again, dumbfounded, and said, "I'm not the only one who heard that right?" They shock their heads.

"No!" Replied again. This time it was clearer and one that they all knew all too well...

"Sora?" They all asked the air simultaneously. "Sora!" Came again, this time a deeper tone.

"I thought you guys were my friends!" They all mouthed 'What?'.

"We are your friends," Said a more feminine voice.

"Oh really? Friends don't keep bugging friends about something that they couldn't have possibly helped!" He snarled. The King pointed to the direction in the forrest and they all nodded before starting toward it with confused expressions. Ripping through some mammoth sized leaves and vines, the trio found themselves standing on a foot path, staring with blank expressions at the large building that read, "_Destiny High Schhol" _on it. They continued to stare at the large landmark until Donald Exclaimed, "Oh come ON!" and stamping the ground in frustration.

All that time they spent wondering around in circles, right on the other side of those leaves and vines was...

"Sora, look it was all my fault. I was the one that got mad without even taking the time to ask what happened first. I understand, Sora, I really do. You know I love Poppie as if she were my own family, too. And please, please, _please,_" Kairi's voice broke on that last syllable. She looked like she was so close to tears now it wasn't even funny. She even though about letting go of all her control and let her saddness spill out of her eyes, just to make Sora stop yelling and stop being angry. But she immediately dispelled that thought, not wanting use the fact that Sora can't stand it when _anyone _crys, and immediately snaps into action to do what ever he can to make them feel better again, to her advantage.

But even her voice only cracking seemed to make Sora soften up abit. He absolutely hated it when Kairi was upset, but he still couldn't fight that burning sensation he held in his heart, keeping him angered. But Riku seemed to notice his fuming friend calm the slightest bit and sighed silently in relief. Kairi didn't finish her sentence.

"Guys, it's not just you. It's everyone else on this island. They all look at me the same, they all think that I'm just still that lazy shy little kid that they're used to. But I'm not, and that's what I want everybody to see, that's what I want everyone to know..." He frowned again at something that he didn't say out loud. "But I can see that that's probably never going to happen." He snarled again.

"I don't want this life, I don't want any of the constant leaving and putting all of our lives in danger! If I had a choice I would choose to never even _hear_ the word 'Keblade' ever again! I wouldn't want to hear the word 'battle' or 'death' or 'destruction' or 'the chosen one' or 'it all depends on you' again! And I don't care what anyone thinks about me saying that! And you know what else? I don't care if the King ever shows up!"

Kairi and Riku suddenly looked down to three figures that we standing behind Sora (and looked like they were there a long time too). As soon as they caught the small hint of a hurt expression on the over sized mouise's face they silently cursed themselves for not noticing the three sooner. Riku and Kairi's eyes snapped back to Sora with a fear full expression and started shaking their head furiously.

"Seriously," Sora continued, oblivious to the warning signals his friends were trying to give him. "what kind of a King is he to send a note telling us the most horrible news, to us, ever, saying that he would be here 'soon' and not even bother to show up?! It has been a year! _A year. _If he doesn't even have the nerve to drag his butt here—" Riku and Kairi's eyes went wide and the warning signals increased. "—and put us out of our misery once and for all, then he can just go get—"

"SORA!" Riku almost screamed at his friend, not wanting Sora to finish that sentence. The hurt expression on Mickey's face grew and Riku started making a slicing notion at his neck with his hand. Can't Sora take a hint?

"He could just fall from the sky in some freak Gummi ship wreck and I wouldn't care—he could put on a chicken suit, dance around in a circle whilst playing the ucalayly and singing Yankee Doodle for all I care!"

Sora suddenly stopped out of nowhere and stared at his friends with a blank expression. Riku and Kairi finally put their baseball signals to rest and stared at their chestnut haired friend in fear as she spoke, "He's standing right behind me, isn't he?" The red-head and the silver-head both nodded nervously. Sora whirled around on his heels and stared at the King, who's hurt expression was still peasant, nervously and apolitically.

"Your Majesty, ...it's, uh...so nice to see you again...he he, he, he," Sora sighed and turned his head to the ground.

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy and Mickey were now sitting in the lobby of the small red, recently destroyed and newly refurbished, Gummi Ship. Turns out that the mouse, the duck and the dog had spent twenty minutes circling the _entire _small block of vegetation growth. One that only reached out _fifty feet _in diameter. The question on how they managed that without figuring out that all they had to do was walk in a straight line: still a mystery. Along the impeccably short distance of the way back, Sora had tried effetely to through out apologies to the King, but ended up just getting shock off with the King saying to just forget about it and pretend that it never happened. He took that advice with great gratitude right away.

The King was positioned in the drivers seat, keeping Goofy as far away from that thing as possible, Donald and Goofy were positioned in both the passengers seats, leaving the three teens to squeeze together on the tiny, tight pull out seats that stuck out of the walls. Although Sora had declined that offer, saying that he'd rather stand. He was now positioned leaning up against the far wall on the opposite side, standing next to Donald and Goofy with his arms crossed, leaving Kairi and Riku sitting _very _uncomfortably next to each other.

After some time the King began to talk,

"Okay, firstly, now that we're all here, I would like to apologize greatly for taking the length of time that I did in getting here, and I hope you all will understand why that is right after I finish filling you in on the information that I hold." None of them missed the shortest of a second when Mickey's eyes flickered to Sora. Sora and Mickey both took a deep breath.

"About a few months ago I received a letter from some friends over in other worlds. This letter gave me some valuable information on something that could very well change the entire universe as we know it." When the King finished his sentence, everyone in the room froze. Change the universe as they know it?

In the back of their minds, they all expected Sora to spring out and be his usual curious self and ask one of his questions like, "What letter?" or "Who sent it?" or "What do you mean?". But it never came. He just kept quiet, possibly the most quiet the over energetic boy has _ever_ been, his mouth shut and his eyes fixated on the king and what he was telling them.

"This letter," the King continued, "informed me on something that shouldn't be real. Something that was just legend. Up until now." That seemed to scare Donald and Goofy more then it scared the teenagers. "The Twilight Realm."

Donald and Goofy's eyes went wide until the point where they looked like they were about to fall right out of their sockets and just keep rolling. But they wern't the only ones. As soon as Mickey said that name, Sora felt something hard, hot, and sharp stab at his heart. The painful burning didn't subside straight away, and the brunette hissed quietly in shock and pain (but mostly pain). This went unnoticed by everyone but Riku, who stared at his friend in a confused and concerned expression when he clenched his teeth and fists tightly until the point where they looked almost white, and place one pained fist over his burning heart. Riku, still staring at Sora almost jumped out of his skin when the loud Wizard and Knight shot out of their seats and screamed, "WWHHHHAAAATTT?!?!"

_That _was enough to make the King jolt and sink further back into his seat.

"What's the Twilight realm?" They all turned their heads to the once silent brunette, who seemed back to normal and off the wall, standing now about half way between his four friends. Riku stared at him with a disbelieving look. _...he's fine know. Wasn't he just in pain before? That's what it looked like... _Riku thought. Mickey turned his eyes to Sora,

"The end." Was all he said.

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Well there you go. Hey, you know the two mysterious characters that were in the prologue? (The Master and The Professor) well, I'm Kinda having a little bit of trouble coming up with names for them. So if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them! ^-^

Please review.

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	7. Mellinnium

Hey, me again! Here is the seventh chapter. I hope you like it! ^_o

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The on going silence taunted and haunted them, as they sat there silent and unmoving, they all re plaid the words over and over in their heads. _"...What's the Twilight realm? ...the end..." _This was the first time the three teenagers had heard of this name, but it still chilled them to the bone. They all kept their eyes low, away from anyone else's. They all closed their eyes, feeling the coldness of their once warm bodies, feeling that strong spark run up and down from their toes to the top of their crainium's, never slowing, never stopping.

"_What's the..."_

Donald and Goofy stared at each other fearfully.

"_...Twilight realm?"_

The King and the young Keblade master kept their eyes fixated on one another, never moving.

"_...The end."_

Every ones breath caught for a moment in time until a loud ear pearsing scream was heard as a certain white feathery one dressed in blue shot up from the ground and landed right back down again with a loud bang, with enough force to shake the hole ship for a few moments.

"WHHAAAK!!!" he screamed, causing everyone to jump in shock.

"That was a little uncalled for..." Goofy murmured, earning a growl from the frightened duck. Donald then continued.

"What do you mean?! That place is just a tale, a legend, a scary story that parents used to tell their kids to make them go to sleep! It cant be real!"

"I'm afraid that it is, Donald." Replied the King.

"But how?" Cut in Goofy.

"That is an interesting question,"

The one sided conversation made a certain dark user to frown and shoot up out of his seat. "Not to be rude here, but could someone please explain what the hell you are talking about?!" That caused everyone to turn and look at him.

"Of course, I'm sorry." Mickey apologized. He then took another deep breath and started over. "You all know the realm of darkness," the three nodded even though it wasn't really a question, "well, about one thousand years ago, there were two main realms in the universe: The realm of Darkness, and the realm of Light. Now, the universe needed those two realms to keep itself balanced, so therefor there was an equal amount of Darkness and an equal amount of light." The three nodded.

"Between those two realms was a world much larger, and much more powerful then any other. The name of that world was Mellinnium. And that world was what kept those two realms at balance. Mellinnium was a calm and peaceful place, never bestowing and trouble or any harm to the others. It was where magic ruled, and light and darkness powered the land. There was a piece of all worlds there: mermaids, dragons, lions, and other creatures of all shapes and sizes. This land really was a great gift, to the inhabitants and to all the other worlds as well." The King finished and walked over to the far side of the Gummi Ship control panel, lingering over a few switches and buttons.

"That really doesn't sound that bad to me." Kairi commented, perhaps speaking for the first time since she walked into the ship.

"Yeah," Sora cut in, "if this place was so great, then what are you afraid of?"

The King didn't answer, instead he just pushed a small black button (the _only _button that wasn't red). At first the machine made a few mechanical chain noises and then loud bangs that sounded almost like car backfires. Mickey pushed the button twice again and frowned when nothing happened. "Oh, come _on_," He pushed the button again, only harder and kept it held down for a few seconds before pounding his fist down twice in two spots and kicking it once. The red machine gave out some more loud bangs that sounded like protest before the chain- like noises came back and a light blue light shot out of it.

"Ah, there we go!" The beam of light lingered at the top, in the centre of the room for a few moments before the small, warm, glowing orb exploded outward, engulfing the entire room in blue light. After a second, the light subsided and reviled the rooms new appearance. It was as if that light had transported them into space...and made them about five thousand times bigger. The six were now standing in the on nothing as they watched all the stars and worlds that they had never seen before zoom past them in lightning fast speed. When it finally stopped, the six found themselves standing in the middle of a galaxy that they knew all too well. Sora let his eyes wander over all the worlds that he had visited in the past: The land of dragons, Port Royal, Atlantica, Pride lands, Radiant Garden...

But it wasn't until he turned his head around and his attention caught on a small yellow sphere that floated right in the middle of all the others. This world was obviously the biggest and the most extravagant out of all of them. But what was strange was the way all the other worlds were positioned around it, as if their entire existence revolved around that one yellow orb, like it was their sun. Mickey took a step forward and placed his hand under the yellow planet.

"Everyone," he said "this...is Mellinnium." With just the slightest touch everything started zooming past again. When the zooming died down Kairi gasped.

That planet was just about the most beautiful thing that Sora, Riku or Kairi had ever seen. Around its perfect shape were two golden rings, positioned diagonally so that they were passing over each other. The rings were made up of radiant stars, sparkling every now and again. The surface was engulfed with blue oceans and green forrsts, golden deserts and vast kingdoms. On almost every speck of the land, it was covered by flowers and plants of ever colour and spices. Revolving around the the world were two moons, one white and one blue. The white one was much, _much _larger then the blue and closer to the surface.

Sora got knocked back into reality when he heard the King sigh and turn toward him. "You'll find out the answer to your question, Sora, in...three...two...one..."

As soon as the King finished counting down, Sora's eyes caught on to the thing that he must have been talking about. Sora's eyes went wide, about as wide as Donald and Goofy's were before, and he gasped loudly, causing Riku and Kairi to take their attention off of the wondrous land and see what Sora was looking at, making them gasp just as loudly as well.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be _kidding me_!" Sora complained.

There it was right there, for all to see. The others saw it too, so that was his proof that he wasn't seeing things. Peaking out of the shadows, right there, revolving around the world, was a heart shaped moon.

"What?" Riku breathed.

"How?" asked Kairi.

Mickey walked around to face them, "_This _is Kingdom Hearts' original home." He said. Mickey touched a nearby star and they began zooming again. When they stopped the King started explaining again. "The worlds that belonged mainly to the realm of darkness became jealous of this worlds power, but most importantly, one of it's moons in particular. They found that this moon held impeccable power, and they wanted it for their own. So they declared war on this world, and they were determined to not stop until they got what they were after. The war was said to have lasted for years on end. Eventually this was becoming too much for the world to handle, so the rulers made the ultimate sacrifice. In order to save their people they had no other choice but to sacrifice their beloved world so that that would be possible."

Thousands, maybe millions of ships were closing up on Mellinnium, firing hundreds of missiles and other weapons. The world then fought back with magic and weapons of their own.

"But the invaders found out about this plan and tried to stop them, knowing that the world was the moons only life source and if it went down, so would the moon. They tried to destroy it, break open the moon so that its power would be realised. But it only backfired. The moon went into the ultimate attack mode, throwing out impeccable amounts of power, magic, light and darkness. But this power was too strong, that when it reached the two realms it tore a hole right through the barriers, unleashing unstoppable amounts of light and darkness."

It showed the moon being attacked, broken, the power being unleashed braking the barriers and large masses of darkness and light being exploded outward.

"The masses of Light and darkness swept and flew toward its master, its home, destroying anything in its path. But this overwhelming amount of darkness and light was just too much for the worlds to handle." The large massed swept around the universe and engulfed Mellinnium. After a while the world began to shake and the light began to rumble uncontrollably.

"It tore the world in two, creating a near duplacet of its exact form. The only difference was that it was smaller, _much smaller_, in size and there was almost no light held within it. Mellinnium, having almost all of its darkness riped forcibly from it, began to collapse."

It showed the duplicate being ripped from its original and the world began to shake, large masses of rock were being ripped right out of it. Kairi felt so sad at this point, watching such a once beautiful and flawless world being destroyed. Sora seemed to notice this and moved subconsciously closer to her.

"Because there was _all_ light and almost _no_darkness to keep the world balanced, the darkness that was from the duplicate began to attack Mellinnium. Because of this, darkness and light that should never never make contact, started to fuse together. This created something new, different from anything that has existed before."

The light and darkness began to battle until both halves crashed together quite violently. The two realms fused together and created this bright golden light.

"The rest of the darkness retreated and left this new thing before it could be absorbed as well. _This _is the Twilight realm." After the King finished more zooming began, faster then it was before and they all started to become dizzy. Sora noticed Kairi about to fall and cought her before she could topple over.

"The Twilight realm then pushed Mellinnium along with what was left of the realm of light away, over to the far reaches of the other side of the universe. But after some time, the Twilight realm began to revolve around the duplicate world, the world that shouldn't exist. This duplicate was named: The Broken Kingdom. That was when strange things started to happen. Broken Kingdom started to...well...how do I put this? Give out _orders_, if you will, to the new realm to create new worlds of its own."

A large yellow light exploded and small new worlds appeared. There was only a small number of them, but even so, all of them chilled Sora to the bone, and he didn't even know why. Mickey then started to walk over to the center of all these worlds turning around and studying each one of them carefully, like he was looking for something in particular. He suddenly stopped turning an spoke the Sora, Riku and Kairi in a clear, knowing voice.

"Any of these look particularly farmilliar to any of you?" That was when they saw it, the smallest of them all, and the most beautiful of these worlds. The one that was more golden then the rest and had an extra glow to it.

"Twilight Town." They all said together. The King sighed and touched another nearby star. All of space seemed to be sucked up into that tiny little star and there was nothing for the shortest of a second. The blue light from the beginning took over again and after a moment that seemed longer then the first time, the six were back in the small tiny Gummi ship. They were all temporarily blinded for a bit, but then it slowly died down. And after it did, they all simply stood there before Sora broke the silence.

"What?! Twilight Town?!" He almost yelled.

"I do not know how Twilight Town managed to escape from its home realm and get where it is now." The King said in a toneless voice before Sora could ask anymore questions.

"So," Riku cut in, "what's the deal? What do you need us for?"

"Broken Kingdom has been found again." They all gasped again, and, like earlier, Donald and Goofy's eyes looked like they were about to drop on the floor. "And they think that Mellinnium still exists. The inactive worlds within the realm have become active and the Twilight realm has been re-opened."

"Damn," Riku whispered amazingly.

"And I am sorry to say this but," Mickey continued, "we need you to pack what ever you can in a hour and be ready for departure at 6:00 sharp."

The three nodded sadly and exited the Gummi Ship.

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Please Review.

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	8. Off We Go

Hey, It's me here with chapter number eight. It was kinda a longer wait this time, but anyhoo here it is. Oh, just to try something different for once, in the upcoming chapters I'll be having Sora narrating in random parts of it. Just to try something new.

Hope you like it. ^-^

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Sora strolled slowly through the small island, taking in as much of it that he had left. His shoes squeaked against the pavement and his heavy back pack _**clacking **_against his back every time he took a step. The sun was bright up against the horizon, only minutes away from setting, turning the multicoloured island into a soft twilight. The trees were blowing, the waves were rolling, and the wind was blowing warm, moist air up against his skin as he continued to walk. Sora had just gotten home an hour ago and was deeply dreading how he was going to break the news that he was going to have to leave again on another mission, where he may or may not come back, to his mother and cousin. And it wasn't pretty. It started of with and argument and then defining silence. Eventually Sora's mother had given up and just helped her son pack. But Sora hadn't failed to notice the moisture in her eyes. Sora knew that his mother had always been a strong woman, and she was. Just not today.

Five-thirty came quicker then he had expected and it was time to bid his goodbyes. His little cousin, Poppie, seemed the most upset out of all of them. She loved Sora as if he were her own brother, but he just told her to be strong and keep smiling, if she did that he would be home before any of them knew it. He promised. Sora exhaled deeply as he re-plaid that seen over and over in his head, memorizing every little detail. It was just then that a blitzball bounced under his feet as he went to put his foot back on the ground to take another step, sending the brunette face first into the pavement.

"Whoa!" Sora cried before he hit the ground.

"Hey, I'm so sorry, man! The idiot over there kicked it completly—" When Sora lifted his head up so that the boy could see his face, he put on a hated expression. "Oh. It's you." The boy said coldly. Sora didn't respond to that, instead he just got up and dusted himself off.

"Thanks for the apology." Sora murmured. The boy rolled his eyes when he noticed a large blue backpack lying on the ground beside where Sora fell.

"What's with the backpack? Going soemwhere, Hikari." He asked dryly, and Sora just did what he did best in these situations. He lied.

"Oh, yeah. My mom got a job interview on one of the main islands so were all going there for the weekend." As soon as the sentence was out Sora frowned in confusion at how smoothly it came out. He didn't even think about it.

"Yeah, right." The other boy scofted as he came over to them. "I'm sure _that's_ where your going." He rolled his eyes.

"That's because it _is_ where I'm going,"

"Nah, he's probably going to meet someone-or-other that will take them out to God knows where on another one of his crazy _journeys_." They laughed a mocking laugh again and Sora felt himself growing angry. "Do you know how much of a crack-pot you are? Get your head out of the clouds, looser!" They laughed louder.

Sora frowned, "My head's not in the clouds and I'm going to be late!"

"Yeah, sure. Have fun with whatever, freak." And with that they ran off, laughing louder and murmuring what sounded like, "He's such a freak" and "What a looser".

Sora growlered to himself, picked up his bag and ran off.

_**Sora: **Here's the good thing about living on an island where everybody knows everyone, but no one knows three quarters of who you are: there isn't one. Because no matter how hard you try, people will always look at you the same. No matter how hard you try to convince them that all this is real, they call you names behind your back like "crack-pot", "insane", "looser", "freak"... And that's when you know that somethings can never change._

Sora's running increased every moment until it became a worried sprint when he realised that he only had two minutes to reach the small red Gummi ship.

"_Aaaaaaannnnnnnnddd_...three...two...one..._aaannnnd_, his late." Riku announced to Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Kairi, tapping twice on his wrist watch to indicate it. They all sighed right before they heard a rustle coming from the other side of the vines and a muffled cry that almost sounded like, "I'm here!" and as if on que, the over-energetic, chestnut haired boy came bursting through the vines, only to result in him getting tangled in them, twisting it around his ankle, thus sending him face first into the teal grass..._again_.

Donald only put on a _very _frustrated expression, cried out in anger, waltzed right up to Sora and grabbed him by the collar.

"You're LATE!" he screamed.

"WHAT?!" Sora realised himself from the ducks death grip and shot up from the ground. "By like three seconds!"

"Three seconds, three hours, three days...LATE IS LATE!!" _That _was enough to send Sora back on the ground. King Mickey stepped forward. "All that matters is that we're all here now and that we can proceed. Come on, lets get inside every one." He instructed before making his was toward the metal door of the ship. Sora pulled his own head out of the dirt and shakily got up. He wobbled around abit on his feet before bashing into a tree that was suddenly much closer then he thought, sending him back onto the ground..._again_.

Kairi giggled at him and Riku walked up, in no apparent hurry, to help his clumsy friend. Once they were up Sora rubbed his temples and his forehead.

"Say what you want about Donald, but that duck can be _pretty _scary when he wants to be." Sora grumbled before taking off toward the Gummi ship, wobbling and tripping here and there, making Kairi giggle again. Riku and Kairi walked up to where Sora had frozen in place at the entrance of the Gummi ship. When they reached him, without turning around Sora sighed took his heavy bag off of his back and threw it in the middle of the room. When Sora finally turned around, there was a strong expressionless look on his face when he turned his attention to the sky above them. Riku and Kairi did the same.

"Well, I guess this is where we all say goodbye. It was fun living a normal life while it lasted." He said.

Riku nodded, "I guess the word 'normal' has never really been under _our_ names."

"This isn't goodbye," the serious and confident tone caused Sora and Riku to tear their eyes away from the sky and to the red head standing beside them. "we'll be back. I know we will. We always are." Sora breathed a quick, quiet laugh and turned back to the sky.

"You're right. What are we worried for. This will be great!" he said, surprisingly very excited. The scenery around them turned a brighter shade of orange and the three friends watched the sun set one final time. For some completely unknown reason, Kairi broke her gaze with the sky and turned her eyes on Sora. Then something totally unexpected happened. If Kairi blinked she would have missed the split second where Sora's Sapphire eyes turned a light shade of gold. Kairi came to the conclusion that her eyes were playing tricks on her. It was possible for sun to reflect into someones eyes and make them turn that colour. Wasn't it?

Kairi continued to stare with wide eyes at him, and when the sun finally had settled she faintly hared Riku say something that sounded like, "I'll meet you two inside" but she barley heard it, because her eyes were still locked in a confused stance on Sora. Without giving her time to look away, Sora turned his head to Kairi and noticed her staring at him. Sora smiled and asked, "Do I have something on my face?"

He then noticed her expression and his turned consurned. "Are you ok? What's wrong?"

Kairi shock her head and smiled happily when her heart melted at the sight of _blue _eyes, and not _golden _ones. Her eyes were defiantly just playing tricks on her. "Nothing is wrong, I'm fine." Relief washed over her when Sora smiled in return, said, "Come on, we should get inside." led her inside and they watched the red mechanical doors seal away the night scene of their home behind them.

"Here comes another turn, HOLD ON!" Riku advised (yelled) at his friends as they all struggled to keep themselves in their seats. Sora hastily grabbed hold of a safty bar above his head, whilst holding Kairi's hand to prevent her from falling out of her seat..._again_.

"Remind me again why this thing doesn't have any seat belts!" Kairi asked (shouted) as she wiggled herself into more of a secure position in her seat, still clutching Sora's hand like it was a stress ball. Which, in this situation, it probably was.

"They needed a lot of money to install that blue laser thingy..." Sora started.

"Virtual reality simulator..." Donald tried to correct but Sora didn't even stop to take a breath.

"...but since it was very expensive they cut costs by getting rid or things like seat belts and harnesses."

That was about the seventh time that Sora had to explain what Donald had told him to Kairi. Even though the ship was on auto-pilot (Donald and Mickey had refused to let Goofy _anywhere _near the wheel. Sora had later volunteered to drive but they all had turned him down as fast as lightning) that didn't stop the small ship from making fast sharp turns when they least expected it.

"Fricken' cheapskates." Riku grumbled when he almost lost his grip on the seat.

"You're tellen' me!" Goofy responded before the ship made another sharp turn, causing him to almost slip off his seat. But its ok, he was saved when he quickly grabbed a hand full of Riku's hair to stop his from sliding off. The teen hissed in pain and whacked Goofy over the head.

"What I don't get is why they would need to install such technology in _this_!" Kairi broke through the loud ruckus.

"That is because, and believe it or not, this ship is the most high tech and powerful of them all." Mickey answered.

"_This_?!" Sora asked unbelievably, "I've seen closets bigger then this!"

"I said believe it or not," The King shrugged.

"And with better flying capabilities." Riku cut in.

"Oh, come on. It's not _that_ bad..."

Just then the ship for reasons unknown, tilted vertically. This made Sora loose grip of the bar he was holding, sending his sliding across the floor. "AAHHHHH!!" Sora screamed as he slid down the diagonal floor and hit his head on the metal door. A loud _**CLANG **_was heard and Sora was pretty sure he had left a dent in the metal.

"Spoke too soon." the King said quickly, watching Sora's sliding act.

With another quick tilt, the ship was now tilting the opposite direction, making Sora slide back over to the seats and hit his forehead on the hard steal, red chairs.

"OWWW!" He complained and Kairi grabbed hold of him by his shirt. This only backfired when the ship tilted again, only this time Sora took Kairi with him. On their way to the other side again, Sora grabbed a grinning duck by the tail in attempt to stop their sliding, only ending up taking along another passenger for the ride. When they reached the seats again Donald grabbed a hold of Goofy who then grabbed a fistful of Riku's hair (again).

"—WHOA!"

"—AHHHH!"

"—WHAAK!"

"—YAAAH-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOO!"

"—OWW!" Could be heard all around the ship as the five heroes slid, crashed and smashed into everything in there. The ship tilted on its access again and Goofy got a hold of Mickey's arm, and, well...you can guess what happened.

"Yahh!" The King yelled in shock when he found himself tangled in the mixed of this sliding chaos. After another five minutes of that, Riku was lucky enough to get a hold of one of the safety bars that were stuk to the wall, keeping him and all the others that tagged along in one place, momentary putting the joy ride to a halt.

"Finally!" Sora sighed in relief. But they were suddenly assaulted by a mass of black smoke that appeared to be coming from the ships control panel. They all looked up at the same time to see the steering wheel, brakes, park and just about every other button in that ship producing smoke and a few sparks.

"That can't be good..." Kairi stared in awe at the smoking panel, and, as if on que, just about every button but the steering wheel shot out from their position, flying across the room. The ships response was to jerk violently and to begin flying faster and out of control. The ship then tumbled in mid air sending the six flying to the roof, and staying there. Only second after they hit the cealing that a mechanical voice came over the speakers.

"WARNING. WARNING. ERROR IN SYSTEM."

"Oh, yeah, _now _she tells us." Sora grumbled before another wild jerk, causing him to be sucked back down to the ground and landing flat on his face. That jerk sent Donald propelling to the window, which he landed on, momentary crushing his feathery face with the pressure. Once Donald pealed his face free his eyes caught something that was suddenly _very _close to them.

"WHAAK! incoming Disney Castle!"

Down on the surface of the colourful world, Queen Minnie stood on the perfect green grass, staring exactingly up at the perfect blue sky.

"Hmmm, I wonder what's taking them so long."

And on que there was a high pitched missile sound coming from the sky above. Minnie was startled by this sudden noise and jerked her head in the direction in which the sound came from. What looked like red comet was gliding through the sky with a trail of orange flame behind it. Queen Minnie's eyes widened as she leaped back just in time to prevent being crushed to death by the falling comet. "WHAAAAAA!" She screamed as she hit the ground. A mass of knights came running to the tiny queen, helping her up and asking if she were hurt. Minnie quickly dismissed them and turned back around top the small red lump of metal crashed on to the ground.

The ship was pretty much in the same state that it was in after the first crash and before Donald repaired it. A loud bang was heard and the doors practically fell open. All six of the passengers tumbled and rolled out of the ship, stuck together in a big ball, landing hard on the ground. The unluckiest one of all of them was Sora, who was nailed to the ground with everyone else on top.

"So much for high tech and powerfull." Riku commented.

A muffled voice was heard beneath them. It almost sounded like, "_I think I can taste my spleen!_"

That was enough to send Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald and Goofy propelling off of the poor boy. Kairi bolted to Sora, quickly rolling him on his back and allowing him to breath.

"Sora, are you ok?" Kairi shouted in concern. Sora blinked a few times before his eyes were allowed to open to their full extent. Sora put on a confused expression and seemed to talk in a daze like state.

"Kairi? I didn't know you had a twin sister." Kairi frowned in confusion. Minnie quickly ran over to the dazed boy, kneeling beside Kairi.

"Sora, are you seeing double?" She asked.

Sora didn't anwer the question. He only tilted his head to the side and put on a even more confused expression.

"Ah," He said as if something interested him. "Queen Minnie, I see you've grown an ear since I last saw you."

"I'll take that as a yes." Minnie motioned to the knights, "Could you please take this young man to the hospital room?"

Two knights came and picked Sora up, one holding his feet and the other supporting his torso. They carried him away toward to castle, with Sora muttering something about two suns.

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Well, there is the new chapter. I don't know what it is about visualising Sora sliding across the floor that makes me giggle. ^_^

Please review.

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	9. New Faces

**Hey, it's me again! I am here with the 9****th**** chapter of this story. Just a quick thank you to all the people that have reviewed this story. It really means a lot to me! (Especially since I have never really gotten much review in the past for my other stories, and ChibiJojo's too) **

**Once again I do not own **_**any**_** part of the original storyline of Kingdom Hearts or its characters.**

**I hope you enjoy this chapter! ^-^**

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"Well, your vital signs are all good; you do not seem to have any type of internal injuries and no broken bones. Apart from a few brazes and scratches here and there, you're fine."

"Then why does my head still feel like I've been run over five times by a bulldozer?" Sora asked whilst clutching his bandaged up head in pain and rubbing at his temples violently. The doctor only whacked his hands away and gave him a stern look.

"Adding pressure will only make the pain worse." She warned before turning around and walking to a nearby draw, opening it and pulling out a plain white bottle with a red sticker on the front and back.

"Listen to the doctor, Sora. She knows what she is doing and isn't stupid enough to keep rubbing her head when it's just been banged around non stop for about ten minutes."

Sora turned his head to the side and gave his best friend an angry glare. Riku only laughed and jumped down off of the bench he was just sitting on and walked toward he boy in the bed. When Sora's hands made their way back to his temples Riku frowned and whacked his hands back down beside his torso. Sora looked up and with a too innocent look. "What is this, slap Sora day?" Sora's fingers twitched the slightest little bit before they were tied up in Riku's death grasp, holding them still.

"You relocate your hands; I'll relocate your nose." Riku's tone and expression was enough to make Sora's annoyed expression turn into one of fear and nod quickly. He knew his friend long enough to know that he was far from bluffing.

"Here," The doctor returned over to the two teens and handed Sora two white circular tablets and a glass of water. "Drink this. It will help with the pain; you'll be fine." The doctor instructed. Just as Sora was about to slide the two tablets into his mouth he stoped on the account of someone clearing their throat quite loudly and a sweet voice saying, "Excuse me,"

Sora, Riku and the doctor all turned their heads to see a girl standing near the door way. The girl was _very_ pretty with long Auburn hair that reached up to the middle of her back and tied up in a high ponytail. She had a porcelain heart shaped face with soft red lips and bright, striking blue eyes. Around her neck was a golden shell necklace. She had on a loose tank top that ended just below her ribs, with a plain grey tight top underneath that hid the rest of her stomach. She had on a pair of light blue jeans with many dirty red belts here and there and silver chains that connected to a pair of dark brown pockets on each leg. From just above her elbow down to her wrists was a loose cream coloured fabric that swished around when she moved her arms, and plain black fingerless gloves.

She had on both legs two brown belts that tied around her lower calf and a pair of plain dark red cowgirl boots. Although the thing that caught Sora's eye was the large gold coloured crown emblem on the girls' tank top. It was almost a near duplicate of his own silver crown that hung around his neck. The only difference was the colour and the points weren't as sharp as his necklace. On each of her pockets was a small key ring. On the right leg was the Kings' emblem and on the left leg was a yellow poupu fruit. That small golden necklace looked familiar too, now that he thought about it. The girl stepped forward.

"Are you sure he'll be fine?" The girl asked the doctor.

"Yes? Why?" The doctor answered her, a little confused as to who this girl was.

"Because those pills that he's about to take aren't the right ones that he should be taking. All they are going to do is subdue the pain for a couple of hours, after they ware off it'll only be worse. The pain will duplicate and then gradually triple. So judging by what he said before; "run over five times by a bulldozer", well," She turned her gaze to Sora, "sorry to be so blunt, but the odds are that you will most likely feel like you're dieing."

Sora looked down to the two tablets in his hand and increased the distance between them and his mouth by a great stretch. The doctor frowned.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" She asked in an annoyed voice.

"I'm someone who can notice the warning signs of permanent internal damage." She said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Those tablets that you first gave him should have been enough to get rid of the pain straight away, so there for it should made his head pain free. _Not_ worse. The pain that he is now feeling is probably caused due to a bruised cranium. That will take a while to heal, much more then what a couple of normal pain killers will do."

Riku and Sora both turned to each other. They shared a glanced before Riku shrugged and mouthed, "She's good"

"Thank you for your opinion, little girl, but I think I know what I'm doing. Go on ahead and take those, Sora."

"No don't take them!" The girl shouted, causing Sora to jump.

"I know what I'm talking about when I say that taking those tablets is a very bad idea."

"I know what I'm doing!" The doctor debated defensively.

"Well then have you given him eye drops yet?"

"What? Why would he need eye drops?" The doctor asked confused. The girl turned her gaze toward Sora again.

"You see how his right eye is a little blood shot and the eye lid isn't open as much as the left one? That indicates a scratched cornea. It isn't really too much of a worry, but he should take them now to prevent any swelling or further damage. So judging by the look on your face, that tells me that you hadn't noticed, Doctor." That caused Sora and Riku to snicker but quickly stopped when they received a glare from the doctor.

"Which brings me back to the pills," The girl continued.

"Well then, if you are so smart, please enlighten me on what I should give him."

"Well, first of all," She pointed at the two white tablets in Sora's hand, "get rid of those. You may as well paint them black and call them poison." Sora slid the two pills back in their bottle and screwed the lid back on. The girl walked over and took them from his hand. "Thank you," She said happily and walked back over to the medicine cabinet, muttering something that sounded like, "These are useless to pretty much _everything_" and tossed it over her shoulder, it landing perfectly in the bin.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" The doctor asked only to be ignored.

"Hmmm…let's see—"

"Hey you aren't authorised to be going through that!"

"—there are antacids, antibiotics, nerofine…" The girl continued through the draw of medicine, not even stoping to take a breath when the doctor spoke. "Ah, here we go!" The girl pulled out a single clear bottle with strange blue tablets on the inside. She threw the bottle to Sora.

"Menka Serum," She explained, "From the Menka flower. They say that it can cure all illnesses and abolish all pain."

Sora unscrewed the lid off. "How many?" He asked.

"Just one is enough."

The tablets were just one inch away from Sora's mouth when the doctor shouted, "Wait!"

"Can I please just take _something_?! My head is killing me." Sora complained in an annoyed voice.

"We only just made that serum into a tablet not long ago, we don't know the outcome."

"Says the woman who can't even detect a scratched cornea."

"She's got a point," Sora took one blue tablet from the bottle and plopped it in his mouth, not even hesitating in swallowing. The effects were almost instant. Only mere seconds after Sora swallowed a flowing sensation filled his head and the pain stopped. It felt as if it was just washed right out of his scull. Sora put on his bright, toothy smile and almost jumped in joy when he said,

"I can't feel anything! All the pain is just _gone_!" He turned to the girl, "You are a genius!"

"I know," She said in a chirpy voice. "Oh, I almost forgot," She walked back over to the medicine cabinet and pulled out eye drops. She tossed them to Sora.

"Squeeze three drops into your right eye. It should be enough." He did so. "That'll heal up in a couple hours or so."

The girl looked around the room and put her hands on her hips, "Well, my work here is done. Call me if there is anything else that you want to poison patients with." She said to the doctor before flashing Sora and Riku a smile, turning and walking out of the room. For a few moments there was just this on going awkward silence that filled the room, until Riku cleared his throat and moved over to Sora.

"Well, uh…I can see that you're better," He started nervously, "so, um…"

"Yeah, uh, we'll just, uh…" Sora said in the same tone.

"Go?"

"Yes! We'll leave you to your work, doctor," Sora jumped out of the bed, inching away from the doctor.

"Yes, um, keep up the good work," Riku grabbed Sora's forearm and they started pulling each other away.

"Bye." They said simultaneously and half ran out the door.

-----------------------------------------------

The sound of laughter filled the hallways of Disney castle.

"Did you see her face?" Riku choked out through laughter.

"She looked like she was about to rip that girl to shreds!" That caused the two to laugh even harder. Sora and Riku had been roaming around the castle halls for about half an hour now, killing time before they had to go in and see the king so that he could explain thing further about their journey.

"Hahaha, and when she mentioned your eye," The roaring laughter came again as they continued to walk.

"How is your head, by the way?" Riku asked after a few more minutes of non stop laughter.

"Great! It's like it wasn't even hurting in the first place." Sora answered happily. "That girl was right about the pills. Who was she, though?"

"I don't know," Riku answered, "I've never seen her before. She was kinda cute, huh," Riku commented. Sora only shrugged and said, "Maybe" and left it at that. There was something strange about her that he still couldn't quite put his finer on. Riku stopped suddenly, extending his arm out in front of Sora and stopping him to.

"What's up, Sora?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that every time that I bring up anything about a girl, or even just girls all together, all you do is shrug and say "Maybe"." Riku informed.

"I— I do not!" Sora responded defectively.

"You just haven't noticed, but I have."

Sora shock his head and started walking forward again.

"Look, Sora, I understand, but believe me when I say that it's no use walking around acting like a love sick puppy all of the time." _That _made Sora stop in his tracks, making Riku stop with him.

"What?" He asked surprised. Riku only said one word, "Kairi."

Sora shock his head again, "I- I- I am not love sick!"

Riku didn't say anything; he only gave his friend a "You're not fooling me" look. Sora turned his eyes to the floor and Riku put a hand on his shoulder. "Sora, just tell her—"

"I can't." Sora cut him off and snapped his head back up, giving his friend and stern look. His eyes turned soft again and he looked back down.

"I can't." He whispered. A soft chime like ringing ran through their ears, circling through the entire castle. Sora's head snapped back up again and his head swished from side to side, his eyes searching the walls and roof—startled by the chimes. Riku put a hand on Sora's shoulder again in a reassuring grasp.

"Relax," Riku said whilst tapping the face of his wrist watch. "It's just the King. That chime goes off whenever he is requesting a meeting."

"How do you know that?" Sora asked slightly confused about the information his friend just gave him.

"Because while Mickey was informing us about that bell, you were too busy beating your own skull!"

Sora frowned and mumbled something along the lines of "It really hurt, ok". Riku grabbed Sora by his arm and they started racing through the halls. It was minutes after that the two teens arrived in a hall, perfectly carpeted and perfectly looked after, with one of the biggest doors in the entire universe. Riku stared up at the door in awe and whistled at the enormous size.

"That…is the second biggest door I have _ever_ seen," Riku commented. Sora grinned and stepped closer to it and placed both hands firmly on the door.

"Come on." Sora said and gave the door a firm push.

"Uh, Sora, don't you think…" Riku trailed off when a piece of the bottom half of the gigantic door opened up. Sora chuckled and stepped through the smaller door way. "Never mind." Riku shrugged before stepping through after his friend.

Sora was surprised to find all of the others there, with some other new faces. At the far end of the room, standing on a podium, was the Kings throne. But what was different was the long red table stretching right down the middle of the room. Tall blue chairs with an enormously long back were positioned all around the table, with two larger golden rimmed ones at the foot of the table. Sora guessed that that was where the King and Queen will be sitting. The long table looked very out of place in the wide, spacious room. Apart from that, everything else was just as it was and always is. The group of people who were positioned around the room turned away from their silent small talk and turned their eyes toward Sora and Riku.

"Oh, good. Now we're all here." The King beamed before taking his place on the podium. Sora turned his head to the side and saw a flash of wine red hair running his way.

"Hey!" Kairi beamed when she reached them. "What took you guys so long?"

"Sidetracked." Riku informed simply with a shrug. Kairi smiled brightly again and Sora chuckled.

"You seem happy. What's up?" Sora asked.

"Oh, I've just been getting to know a few people, sharing stories and what not." Kairi informed with a grin.

"Sharing stories? With who?" Sora frowned.

Kairi's grin became wider and Riku rose and eyebrow. "Oh," She started. "I think you might know some of them…" Kairi turned around and motioned to a particular group standing at the far wall. At first Sora had to squint to see what Kairi was pointing at, them standing so far away, but them his bright toothy smile reappeared when he realised who the group of people were.

"Hey!" Sora cheered happily before running of in the direction of the group. Yes, the group were the one and only members of the restoration committee. Leon, Yuffie, Aerith and Cid. They all turned to the sound on Sora's exclamation and smiled brightly at him in return. Well…except Leon.

"Hey guys!" Sora beamed once he reached them.

"SORA!" Yuffie cried and practically jumped on the Keyblade Master, bringing him in to a bone crushing hug. Sora squirmed under the Ninja's embrace.

"Y- Yuffie— can't…BREATH!" Sora managed to choke out.

"Woops! Sorry!" Yuffie chuckled and realised the poor boy. Kairi didn't really know why, but the felt a small, short stab of jealousy of the girl when she hugged Sora.

"How have you been?" Aerith asked and pulled Sora into a _gentle_ hug. "Great!" He replied and Leon and Cid both gave Sora pats on the shoulder.

"So how is the restoration committee coming along?" Sora asked.

"Pretty well," Replied Leon. "At this rate, there shouldn't be anything else to repair by the end of the month."

"Really? That's great," Sora commented. "How is everything else down there?"

"Surprisingly…quite peaceful." Aerith answered.

"Really?" Kairi cut in. "From what I've heard, that place may as well be Heartless central."

"Well not anymore it ain't." Said Cid.

"Nothing?" Riku cut in with an amazed tone. "Actually nothing?"

"Apart from your occasional Dusks, nothing too big." Yuffie answered, and then quickly changed the subject. "Anyhoo, your friend Kairi here was just sharing with us some interesting stories about you," She said in a sing-song way.

"What kind of stories?" Sora turned to Kairi, suddenly a little scared. Yuffie put one arm around his shoulder. "Now that, Sora, is a secret."

"What do you mean it's a secret?! But they're about me!" Sora debated but could see already that they were never going to give in.

Kairi laughed beside him. "You heard the lady, Sora. It's a secret."

"Hey, I wanna know!" He tried again. Riku patted his friend's shoulder.

"He never really was good with secrets," He informed the four.

Sora's expression turned disbelieving and he spun back around to look at a giggling Kairi. "What secrets? What did you say?!" They all burst out into laughter, even Leon cracked a grin.

"Excuse me everyone, if I could please have your attention." The sound of the Kings voice addressing the hall slowly silenced everyone. Sora grumbled and put on a pouty expression and turned his head away from his friends that were laughing at him. King Mickey adjusted his position on the podium and stepped closer to the microphone.

"Now, first of all I would like to acknolish the past year we have had, with the order of the worlds peaceful and safe for the inhabitants which live on them, unharmed." The roomed cheered at the Kings words. "And also the knowledge of the Safe Worlds remains unchanged." More cheering came. Sora, Riku and Kairi all exchanged confused expression. Sora leaned over to Leon.

"What's a Safe World?" He whispered.

"Worlds that do not know about any of this," Leon gestured around the room. Sora knew what he meant almost immediately, worlds that don't know about Keyblades or Heartless or Nobodies or anything magical in particular. "There are only two Safe Worlds in the entire universe."

Sora had a feeling about what two worlds those were. The King continued.

"Before we get to down to business about future occurrences, I would like you all to sit down for a feast." He motioned toward the empty table. Sora looked around the room and frowned in confusion.

"Feast? But there's no—"

A loud _**BANG **_filled the room, cutting Sora off, and a whole mass of brooms holding piles of silver platters in both hands came rushing through the large door and…some seemed as if to appear out of thin air. In the short moment of chaos, the brooms managed to rush up to the table, scatter the silver platters up and down the table, add utensils and serviettes, place candles and light them, leave the glasses and drinks till last, and then run out of the room the same way they came in a chaotic way and leave the room in shocked silence.

"…food." Sora finished. "Never mind."

When the trio arrived at the outrageously large red table, they suddenly felt _very_ out of place with everyone else. All of the people standing there in or in front of their seats were dressed in some sort of elegant formalwear. There were men in tuxedos and women in ball gowns, there were even some people dressed in the traditional clothing of their home worlds. There were some that were not as formal as others but still elegant and extravagate all together. As Sora, Kairi and Riku looked around the room, to each other, and back again, they consequently felt quite small around the mass of gowns, them standing there in plain island T-shirts and shorts.

After a few moments Sora just shrugged it off and took off toward the dinner table, the others following close behind. The trio took their place in the middle right side. Sora gazed around at the group of people who were also sitting where he sat, not actually knowing any of them. Sora turned his head to the side to see an oversized dog clad in Knights armour who also gave off a striking resemblance to Goofy.

"Hey, the name's Max." The boy said, Sora guessed he couldn't be more then nineteen years old.

"Sora," He responded, "nice to meet you." They shook hands. "This is Kairi and Riku," Sora pointed at them.

"Hi," Riku greeted.

"Hello," Greeted Kairi. Max's expression suddenly turned confused.

"Wait, _Sora_?"

"Yeah…" Sora responded with a slight confused expression.

"So…_you're_ the Keyblade Master," He realised. "Funny, I pictured something…_more_."

Sora frowned and grumbled, "If I had a nickel for every time I've heard _that_."

"Anyway," Max continued, "My dad's been telling me some pretty interesting stuff about you,"

"Why is everyone spreading stories about me today?" Sora asked, chest fallen. His head then snapped up.

"Wait, dad?" He asked, "Who's your dad?"

"Him." Max didn't give off any further detail, he just pointed up ahead to a certain Knight who was speaking to the King, stumbled over his own feet and knocked over a row of three brooms who were carrying some extra plates, having the plates break and the food splatter all over the floor, and having the brooms get angry and start chasing him all around. Another broom glided into the room, appearing out of nowhere, and mopping up the mess the food made, only to have Goofy run back over and slide along the water on the ground, go gliding and crashing into ten more brooms holding food.

Max slapped his forehead and murmured into his hand, "How he got he be the captain, I'll never know."

"Because he's brave, that's why." Sora defended. Max smiled a little.

"I don't think I remember Goofy ever mentioning you," Sora pointed out.

"Yeah, Dad doesn't really mention me much when he's away from me. He gets _really_ over emotional." Max rolled his eyes.

"He's right!" Goofy shouted, appearing out of thin air and causing Sora to practically jump out of his skin. "I just can't stand bein' away from my Maxie…a- after all those months of not seein' him for so long…I- I just…" Goofy then burst out into tears and brought Max into a bone crushing hug.

"Daaaad!" Max whined.

"I think it's sweet," Kairi commented with a smile.

"Of course _you_ do." Max grumbled and attempted to push a hysterical Goofy off of him, with no prevail.

Sora turned away from the father and son and turned his gaze over to four teenagers sitting across from them. They all looked about the same age as Sora, Kairi and Riku. The group was made up of three boys and one girl. The first boy (who at first Sora thought was a girl but after a moment realised that he was in fact a boy) had shoulder length silver hair tied up in a mid ponytail and light lavender coloured eyes. He was dressed in some kind of warrior's armour and was munching on a loaf of bread. Next to him was a girl with bright strawberry blond hair that hung just past her shoulders. She wore a long, wise looking ivory cloche with long sleeves that got in her way a lot and a hood over her head. Sora remembered a conversation with Donald a while ago, and the wizard described people clothed in those particular garments were usually called White Mages. She was glaring at the Worrier.

Next to her was the second boy. He had scruffy brown hair with a few light freckles around his nose and matching brown eyes. Although they were barely visible under the boy's large orangey-yellow hat that ended in a long point far above his head. He also wore a long cloche with wide sleeves. The only difference was that his was black, not white. Donald also described these garments worn by Black Mages. The Black Mage was involved in a conversation with the third boy of the group. The last one was _much_ different then the other three. He was easily the oldest of the teenagers and gave of that superior impression about him. The boy had light blond hair and blue eyes. Like the other mages, he also wore a hat on his head. Except it were red and much more exotic then the others. He didn't ware a cloche, but a long red jacket, red shirt with a white under coat and long red pants. He was a Red Mage.

Sora turned his attention back to the girl when she smacked the Worrier boy upside the head, making him drop the roll of bread he was eating back on his plate.

"OW! What?!" He complained. The White Mage only rolled her eyes and her expression became fiercer.

"What?" She repeated, "_What_? This is a formal dinner! Do you think that you can hold off acting like a common street rat for a few minutes?!"

"I'm hungry." He responded and made for the bread again, only to have the girl snatch it off him before he can get to it.

"Hey!" He complained.

"This is a _formal Kings banquet_." She repeated, "The least you can do is hold back from stuffing your face like a pig!"

"It was just a loaf of bread…" He sighed. "Look, Refia, I know how to behave at a Kings Dinner. I'm not an idiot. And if you don't like it you can take it up with the King!" He added afterward.

"Well, I just might." She challenged.

"Yeah, sure. You do that, girlie."

The worrier took the bread again, only this time it actually made it to his mouth. The girl, Refia, grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Ugh. You are such an annoyance, Luna." She snapped.

"Am not." He shot back. "And how many times have I told you? Don't call me Luna!"

Refia shrugged. "I like it."

"I don't care, I hate it!"

"Why?"

"Because it is a girl's name!"

"Who cares?!"

"I DO!!" He yelled a little too loudly, causing the people around him the turn their heads and look at him. He blushed and hid his face in his hand. Sora turned to the other two boys sitting next to them, who broke off their conversation and were now staring at the two. The Red Mage was slightly shaking his head disapprovingly and the Black Mage wore an embarrassed expression.

Sora leaned over to them. "Are they always like this?" He whispered.

"Oh yeah." They said simultaneously. Refia and the Worrier had began to argue again and the Red Mage leaned around the Black Mage and snapped his fingers loudly, immediately gaining the two's attention.

"Hey! You two! Stop arguing." He ordered sternly. "Luneth, keep your voice down and stop yelling. Refia, it is just a loaf of bread. Follow your own advice and behave."

"—She started it!"

"—He started it!" They both yelled at the same time.

"I don't care who started it! Zip it!" He ordered again making a zipping motion across his mouth. Luneth and Refia both crossed their arms and mumbled something under their breath. Sora glanced over to Riku and Kairi who both shrugged.

"So…" Sora turned back to the four. "Um, I'm Sora and this is Kairi and Riku," He introduced. Luneth looked up and his angry expression turned into a friendly one.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm _Luneth_," He emphasised, stealing a glance at the red head, who mumbled something along the lines of "I still prefer Luna". "And this is Refia, Arc and Ingus." The Worrier pointed to each of their heads as he said their names.

"Hey, nice to meet you," Refia smiled and shook each of their hands.

"Hello," The Black Mage, Arc, waved.

"Greetings." Ingus nodded.

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Luneth, Refia, Arc and Ingus talked on for a while afterward all the introductions. Even Max, who eventually managed to push Goofy off of him, joined into the conversation. After a few minutes Sora received a tap on the shoulder by Riku.

"Hey, Sora, look." Riku pointed toward two firgures in the far end of the room. At first Sora was confused as to who Riku was pointing at, but then realised who it was moments later.

"It's that cute girl from the hospital room," Riku finished.

The brainy girl from earlier was indeed standing at the far end of the large hall and was involved in some conversation with the King and looked _very_ excited about something, judging by the wide smile on her face. The girl looked much differant from before. Her white tank top and jeans had been replaced by a long, elegant dark sapphire gown. Her cowgirl boots had also been replaced by elegant, dark blue high heels. Her Auburn hair was no longer tied back in its high ponytail, but was left down so that it hung around her body in soft waves.

"Cute girl from the hospital room?" Kairi asked them. She couldn't help her eyes darting over to Sora for a split second.

"Yeah," Answered Riku. "She showed up before, and started telling the doctor how to do her job. It was quite funny, actually. She went on about how the doctor failed to notice all these thing when she was treating Sora." A thought then crossed his mind.

"Hey, if I didn't know any better, I'd say she was worried about you, Sora." He pointed out.

Sora rolled his eyes. "That's ridiculous." He debated, "You can't be worried about somebody you've never even met before." Sora left it at that, not really wanting to mention how familiar the girl looked to him. Kairi looked over to the girl just as she and King Mickey shared a laugh about something.

"Well, she sure is...pretty." Kairi felt a stab of jealousy again and frowned in confusion. _...Why am I feeling so jealous today? _Kairi thought.

Mickey and the girl's conversation ended suddenly and she spun aroung on her heels so fast that it should have given her a whiplash. She looked at Sora first and locked eyes with him. Then she drifted her gaze toward Kairi, and then over to Riku. She put on a confused expresson and turned her gaze back to Sora. Their eyes stayed locked for a few seconds until her expression of confusion slowly morphed into one of fury and pure hatred. For a brief moment, Sora cought a glimps of a white spart next to the girl's body from the corner of his eye. The white light faded into a dark burgundy object. Sora finally snapped back into reality and broke their gaze, only to glance down at the girls hand to find...

A Keyblade?

It was as quick as lightning. The girl lunged herself forward and broke into a fast sprint, not the least bit worried about her balance in those dangerously high heels that she wore. The girl continued to run, Keyblade firmly in hand and pointed forwad.

Straight at Sora.

* * *

**Well, there was the ninth chapter. I hope you enjoied it! And I hope it left you guessing ^-^**

**Yeah, so this one was much longer then the other ones and I'm hoping that I'll get the next one up soon, now that I'm on school holidays.**

**Please review.**

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	10. Attack

**Hello again! Here is the tenth chapter of the story. Yay, double digits!**

**First of all I would just like to warn you that this is my first time writing battle scenes so this may be VERRRRRY bad. **

**Hope you like it and enjoy!**

**^-^**

* * *

It was as fast as lightning. The girl lunged forward and broke into a fast sprint, not the least bit worried about her balance with those dangerously high heels that she wore. The girl sprinted along the floor of the large hall, Keyblade firmly pointed forward.

Straight at Sora…

Or so he thought. The girl only reached him seconds after she took off, and flew past in a blue flash. Keyblade still in hand, the girl sprang herself upward, earning some nervous cries from some of the people there. She jumped on the long red table right in front of the three teenagers and landed right on the opposite end and slashed the ground. It took a black smoky substance to assault the air right where the girl brought her Keyblade down for Sora to realise what was happening. Sora, Kairi and Riku were shot straight up out of their seats and took on a defensive stance. Flashes or light appeared beside their bodies in a domino effect, and the next thing they new they all had their Keyblades in hand.

Two more Heartless appeared next to the girl and with another slash, a twirl and a plunge, they both decomposed into a black cloud like the first one. More clouds appeared and about two dozen more Heartless stood spaced out all around the large room.

"I knew it was too good to be true." Riku said. He was referring to how everyone they talked to today all said the same thing; the Heartless and Nobody population and appearances has been very low lately. The girl took out another Heartless before turning around to the three motionless teenagers.

The girl frowned and yelled, "Well?! Are you just going to stand there?!" immediately snapping them back into reality. Sora was the first to charge forward at one as it was about to attack another guest from behind. He heard a noise come from behind him and spun on his heels to slash another two Heartless about to make a plunge at him. More clouds appeared and Sora plunged at them, taking them out as fast as they came. He heard a sound of footsteps and turned his head to find Riku and Kairi by his side, taking out their own share of Heartless. Sora was surprised at how well Kairi was doing. He felt a shock of fear when he saw a dusk lunge its claws at her, but it vanished when she spun her body around, taking out about three in a row as she did it. The brunette stated at her impressively and she smiled broadly in triumph.

Riku was fighting off a group of larger ones. He made a slash at them and transformed two into dust with like it was nothing. When one made a lash at him, he quickly dodged it, spun around to the Heartless' back and pierced it. Sora and Kairi joined his moments later and, with no apparent struggle, converted the remaining to black fog. The three suddenly stopped where they stood and turned around to examine the battle scene. In the middle was Luneth up against two Heartless'. They both made a lunge at him at the same time but he effortlessly abolished both of them with his two daggers. Next to him was Arc, converting a dusk to dust with just one small wave of his staff, inflicting a small flame on to them. On the other side was Refia blinding one with a bright flash of white light with her long staff and slashing it at them to finish them off. Beside her was Ingus who made a slash at a Heartless with his silver coloured sword. One second it looked like just a normal knight's sword, but after Sora blinked the entire length of the sword was engulfed in a bright red flame. With a swipe of his hand over the flames, they extended forward and destroyed the Heartless.

On the far end of the room was the gang from Radiant garden. Leon swiped his Gunblade from side to side in strong, rhythmic notions, killing any Heartless that came near. With a giant jump in the air, Leon came flying back down to the ground in a flash, ultimately taking out a dusk that was meters away. Yuffie was throwing punches and flinging some sort of circular metal with sharp spikes around the circumference here and there. **(A/N: I don't really know what those things that she uses are called) **One made to swipe at her but she swished around on the balls of her feel and effortlessly punched it square in the "face", converting it to the black cloud it came from. Even Aerith, who repels against violence usually, was taking out a few of them with her staff. Next to her was Cid shooting at the Heartless with his gun, killing each one with only one bullet.

Down on the other side of the room was King Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Max busy with their share of Heartless. One came up from the side to attack the King but he quickly turned and plunged his blade right into it, when another two appeared in front of him, which he momentarily took care of. Donald was busy running around zapping groups of them with his staff, Goofy was charging right into them, turning them to dust like dominos as he went passed, and max was helping out his dad—not quite as clumsily, though.

More Heartless appeared behind Sora, Kairi and Riku, and they quickly took care of them, with no actual effort what so ever. The Scene didn't quite seem right to Sora. He spun back around to examine everyone else again. He noted their easeful attacks and how the Heartless were so easy to take out. Sora brought his Keyblade up to his chest and stared at it for a few seconds. When he looked up he saw that Riku and Kairi were waring the same confused expression as he was. He turned to them and asked slowly,

"Why is this so…"

"Easy?" Kairi finished for him.

"It's like the Heartless aren't even trying," Riku agreed.

Just then there was a flash of purple-black light right in the centre of the room. More flashes came of the same shade like a chain reaction all around the large hall. The flashes started off small at first but then began to grow larger and larger until the point where anyone near then at the time when they appeared would be knocked back into the air and slide across the floor a few meters. "What is going on?!" Sora had to all but scream his question now that there was a loud explosion sound to go along with the flashes. With one final explosion, the loudest one yet, the flashes stopped.

But they did not disappear. It was like someone had frozen time, because all around the room were motionless clouds of purple-black smoke. Everyone in the room was frozen, staring in awe and shock at the clouds ready for another attack. Just then there was a faint purple spark in each of the clouds before they began to swirl around and around many times before the portals opened up and countless masses or Heartless and Nobodies came swarming into the room before the portals disappeared back to where they came from.

"Spoke too soon." Riku said before charging into the mass of creatures, Sora and Kairi following close behind. Sora slashed his Keyblade at one, only this time it took a few swipes to get rid of it. He turned around when a Nobody made a jump at him which he hastily dodged and brought his blade back smashing up against the silver creature. He took down only five more when a whole group of them came charging at him all at once. He blocked their swipes and plunges with his Keyblade and brought the attack back on them moments later. Dozens more charged at him from all around and he was barely able to black their attacks and only able to take down two of them. Suddenly there was a sharp shooting pain it the back or Sora's skull and he hit the ground hand. He was able to harvest enough strength in him to lift him self up, but that was only on all fours.

Sora lighted his hand up to the back of his head, running his fingers over a warm part in his hair. When he brought it back again his palm was painted a bright red liquid. Sora turned his head back around to find a large Heartless with razor sharp claws swinging backwards and forwards, the ones that just slashed Sora in the head from the side. Sora brought his Keyblade up again, but before he could get it anywhere near the Heartless it brought its claws back down to Sora again, drawing blood at his arm. Sora winced when he hit to floor again and a Nobody beside him made a swipe at him, but Sora quickly rolled out of the way, bringing his Keyblade on it right after.

Sora's eyes swept through the crowd of chaos, frantically looking for Riku and Kairi. He found Riku on the other side of the room frantically fighting off dozens or Heartless and Nobodies at a time. He later found Kairi on the opposite side of the room, dealing with her own share of darkness creatures. Sora was assaulted with a strong stab or fear when he saw two Heartless' jump on Kairi at the same time, but after a fright flash of light congered up by the girl, ultimately frying both of them off of her, he calmed down a tiny bit. _…she can take care of herself…_Sora told himself, _I have my own problems here…_

Sora was assaulted by another slash from the large Heartless, causing him to cry out in pain. He lifted up his Keyblade weakly only to have a near by Nobody knock it out of his hand. He looked up at the clawed Heartless as it raised his claws up in the air and brought it back down to Sora. Although the blow never came. Sora squinted his eyes shut until he realised that there had been no pain inflicted on to him. He opened his eyes again only to see a bright white light in front of him, until it slowly faded away to reveal a figure standing in front of him that was wearing a blue dress and holding a burgundy object. Wait. Blue dress. Burgundy object. Sora's fuzzy vision cleared and he realised that it was that brainy girl from the hospital room. The one who gave him the medication to cure the pain in his head. The one who charged at him with her Keyblade. And the one who just saved his life.

The large Heartless for a second looked defeated, but then bounced right back up—claws ready and everything. The girl frowned.

"Hey, Bug eyes!" She challenged, "Why don't you just go take a walk around and go find somebody your own size to pick on?" At first Sora thought the girl was crazy for addressing a Heartless like it was a real human being. The Heartless didn't move from its position.

"No? Well, this is a party, right?" She brought her Keyblade up and pointed the nose right at the Heartless. "Then let's dance."

The girl leaped straight at the creature with great force and brought her Keyblade down on it so fast that it started sparking like a fire cracker. The Heartless brought its claws down on the girl but she quickly dodged the blow and ran around to its back. She made another lash at it in the back and the creature twirled around and through its hand claws at the girl, barely missing her this time. It then swiped at her feet, only to have her jump right over it. The girl couldn't even get a single blow in at the moment because the Heartless was slashing at her like crazy. When the Heartless lifted its hands up in the air, the girl spun her Keyblade around in her hands to get a better grip on it, the Heartless brought its hand slamming back down to the ground with such great force that it cracked the tiles.

She quickly jumped out of the way, rolling on the ground when she fell, and stared up at the Heartless fearfully. "_That_ was too close for comfort…" She said before rolling out of the way of another bone crushing blow. She kept leaping, jumping and rolling out of the way of every blow that the large Heartless gave. She looked up at the creature and smiled mockingly.

"Ha ha, you can't catch me." She said in a "Nah-nah" sort of way, poked her tongue out at it and dodged another blow. _…Wow, she really is crazy… _Sora thought as he lay on the ground in pain from all the attacks the Heartless and Nobodies inflicted on him. The girl suddenly turned her attention away from the huge Heartless that was trying to kill her and rushed over to Sora. She pointed her Keyblade at him and shouted,

"CURE!" Suddenly a group of sparks appeared above Sora's head and he was engulfed in a soft light green light. Sora was able to unclench his white fists when his body stopped hurting and all the blood was gone and his wounds were all healed up. Before he could even think about getting back on his feet, the girl appeared right in front of him. She grabbed a hold of his arm and hauled him on to his feet.

"Make your self useful, I need your help." She said before she jumped back into the battle. Sora stared at her strangely before he made a slash at a nearby Nobody. It made a lash at Sora and he quickly dodged the attack before running behind it and stabbing it straight in the back, making it disappear in a puff of smoke. Sora was approached by two more Heartless' which he quickly took out. Sora found that it was much easier to fight them now that his health was back to 100%, even his head injuries that were left over from the Gummi ship accident were all healed up now. He was then approached by a large group of Heartless. The first jumped at him, but Sora quickly dashed out of the way and took out a nearby Nobody while he was at it. The Heartless lashed at him again and Sora used his Keyblade to block the attack, move out of the way, and finally and a blow on the attacking Heartless.

More appeared beside him and all started at him at once. Sora blocked and dodged attacks before he leaped back and brought the nose of his blade up and pointed at the creatures. "FIRA!" Sora shouted before his Keyblade was engulfed in bright hot energy and shot forward in an inferno of flames, immediately taking out all the Heartless and Nobodies that surrounded him. Sora then heard a sound of struggling come from beside him and he turned around to see the girl barely blocking attacks from the large Heartless.

"Hey, Chestnut, if you're not busy or anything, I can sort of use your help over here!" She shouted before rolling out of the way of the Heartless' claws. Sora jumped straight at the creature before it could land its large claws on the tired girl. Sora jumped around the Heartless waving his Keyblade around to turn its attention to him and off of the girl, but the Heartless didn't respond to Sora at all, it only kept slamming its fists up and down, causing the girl to roll here and there to avoid getting crushed. It seemed to be…ignoring Sora. With a frustrated grunt Sora brought his hands together and pointed his Keyblade at the Heartless.

"LIGHT!" He shouted and a small beam of white light expelled from his Keyblade and shot into the Heartless' eyes, temporarily blinding it. Sora jumped around to the girl on the ground and helped her up.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Yes, I'm fine—LOOK OUT!" She pulled Sora down to the ground when the Heartless through its claws at them, just missing their necks by inches. The beast lifted its claws up above its head again and swung it down. The girl grabbed Sora's arm again and pulled his to the side and they rolled out of the way of the attack. The Heartless lifted its hands up again and, this time, Sora grabbed the girls arm and pulled her to the other side before they could get crushed. The Heartless seemed to get angry and swing its hands around to the two on the ground.

-------------------------------------

A figure was standing on a roof watching the chaos inside the room below through a window of the castle. The figure was waring an onyx black cloche with a hood hiding their face, which helped them blend in to the night quite well. The figure was quite tall and judging by the body structure, showed that the figure was a male. The hooded man stood there motionless from minutes, his eyes fixated on only one thing in that room. He watched the large clawed Heartless attack Sora and the girl, seeming to approve highly about the scene.

"Yes," He said, "It seems to be going by its orders very well. I need not to interfere just yet."

That was the last thing the man said before disappearing back into the darkness.

-----------------------------------

"UGH!" There was a shout of frustration through the chaos. The girl ran around the Heartless over and over, slashing at it here, stabbing it there. Sora slammed his Keyblade into the side and for a moment the creature looked hurt, before it bounced back around and lashed at them again. After another five minutes of lashing and stabbing and slashing and blocking, Sora and the girl found themselves side by side again.

"The big, stupid thing's like a cockroach!" She exclaimed. "No matter how many times you try to crush it, it just won't _die_!"

Sora sighed in frustration before turning to the girl, "I'll hit it high, and you hit it low."

"Gotcha." She said before they both charged at the Heartless again.

Sora slammed the nose of his Keyblade into the ground and leaped into the air, for a moment he seemed to be flying around the monster and he dashed around its head hitting it all around. The girl seemed to be doing the same thing on the ground, only with more ease, because she didn't have to focus on beating the creature _and_ defying gravity at the same time. The Heartless brought its claws down on her and she quickly jumped out of the way and slashed at its side. The Heartless seemed to get angry about this and turned its attention toward Sora. But, instead of lashing out at him like Sora was expecting it to, it slammed its hand at him so fast that he didn't even have time to think about moving out of the way. But Sora wasn't hurt at all when he landed back on the ground. In fact, it seemed to him that the only thing that the Heartless did just then was…simply push Sora out of the way.

The girl blocked another two dozen of the large Heartless' attacks before she was able to get one in herself. She leaped at the Heartless, Keyblade firm in hand and made another slash at the Heartless. But it only dodged the girl's attack and slashed its claws right down one side of her body, consequently splitting her dress down the side from her thigh all the way down to the hem.

"Hey!" She complained before she jumped back at the Heartless. She blocked yet another attack and inflicted more of her own attacks before she realised something.

"Actually, never mind. It's easier to fight now." She laughed and jumped back at it again. Sora was at her side again and the two of them were landing blows on the beast in an almost rhythmic way. The g Heartless swang its claws at Sora, but it quickly blocked the attack, jumped back into the air and pointed his blade at the Heartless again.

"BLIZZARD!" Sora shouted before a mass of ice crystals were launched at the beast and he landed back on the ground.

"Sora!" He heard beside him and turned to see the girl pointing her Keyblade at the beast, but not actually doing anything.

"Think fast." She said seriously before spinning her Keyblade in her hand and shouting, "WATERGA!"

Without even having to think about it, Sora pointed his Keyblade forward and shouted, "THUNDAGA!"

Bright beams both shot out of both Keyblades and on to the Heartless. The water was drowning it, the thunder was shocking it, and the water was amplifying the electricity. The Heartless stood there for a few moments, shaking and fidgeting in pain in the yellow-blue mess, before the colour disappeared and the Heartless finally exploded into a big black smoke.

"YES!!" The girl shouted in triumph, but Sora wasn't celebrating. Sora stood there, clenching his Keyblade tightly in his hand, as he felt his whole body be lit in flames. Or at least that's what it felt like to him. There was a sharp, strong pain deep within his chest and his eyes and palms started to hurt as well. Sora was taken back to another time when his body felt like this: back at Destiny Islands, when he was sliding through the ventilation system trying to get into the auditorium. Only this time it was worse. _Much_ worse. The flame in his heart was almost unbearable, his palms felt burnt and his eyes stung so much that they started to tear.

Sora looked down at his Keyblade. His fists were clenched around the handle so hard that they were white, and, at first he thought that he was seeing things, but his Keyblade was glowing. The girl turned around to look at Sora and noticed the moisture leaking out of his eyes.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked seriously. "Sora?" Sora heard a faint voice beside him but couldn't make out any words. "Sora!" She said again, this time more demanding and full of great concern.

Suddenly the pain in his eyes was far too unbearable that he couldn't take it anymore. His Keyblade began to flash like crazy and it started to produce sparks, the same golden light from before in the vents. Sora felt something jolt inside of him, causing him to cry out in pain, and all around him was engulfed in golden light. The light only surrounded him for the shortest second before it exploded outward all around the room. All of the Heartless and Nobodies seemed to stop in place and stare at the light with an almost fearful way before their arms shot up in front of their eyes to shield them from the light. The light hit all of them like one thousand bullets before they began to shake uncontrollably before disintegrating into their black smoke.

The light didn't stop there; it went on and continued to grow. It wasn't until Sora was completely engulfed in the golden light that he was no longer visible that the light seemed to reach its full extent and explode one last time, throwing the people that didn't stand their ground up against the wall. It was seconds after that the blinding light completely diminished, revealing he damage done to the room. The long red table in the centre of the room was totally destroyed, leaning on the ground on one end, and meters up in the air on the other end. Large pieces of tile were out of the floor and lying in rubble everywhere. The walls were chipped, the podium on the end of the room was barely still standing, the Kings throne was burnt with the top half missing and scattered around the room somewhere, and the roof…well, there was pretty much no roof left. There were people pulling themselves out of rubble, pieces of the roof, up off of the floor and the ones that managed to stay standing were wounded, but not badly.

Sora stood in the middle of the room in the same position as he was before, staring at the scene in wide eyes. He, unlike everyone else, was still in perfect shape. His cloths were un-ripped and he didn't seem to have a single scratch on him.

"What…did…you…_do_?" A frightened voice came from behind him and Sora turned to find himself face to face with the girl in the blue dress. The same as Sora, she seemed unharmed as well, but this was because she was standing right behind him when the explosion happened, so Sora would have shielded her from the light.

"I didn't do anything," Sora whispered, "I didn't do _anything_!" He repeated again, more loudly and more frantically.

"Sora!" Came a voice from the distance and Sora turned around to find Kairi and Riku running up to him. Sora was shocked when Kairi ran straight into his arms and hugged him tightly, which he momentarily returned.

"What happened?" Kairi asked when she realised him. "One second I saw you defeat a gigantic Heartless and the next you were engulfed in this…_light_."

"What was that? Because, Sora, it almost looked like it was coming from you." Riku cut in. Sora looked around the room, half of him inspecting the damage further, and the other half just was avoiding the gaze of his friend. Sora searched inside himself, but he could only come to one conclusion—one that he didn't like at all.

"It- it did come from me…" He admitted.

"But how?" Riku asked, "I mean, that beam _was_ light, but it didn't seem like _pure_ light. You know what I mean?"

"That's because it _wasn't _pure light." Sora, Riku and Kairi all turned their heads to the girl that was standing beside Sora, who was waring a serious expression. Just as Riku was about to ask her what she meant Sora cut in.

"Look," He said, "I don't know what that light was, or why it came from m-me, but you have to believe me when I say that I didn't do _anything_."

"But Sora—"

"I did not do anything!" Sora cut Riku off, suddenly pleading.

"No," Came a new voice from behind them. "You _didn't_ do anything."

They all turned around to meet the person that spoke. It was like he just appeared out of nowhere; they didn't even hear his approach. The boy looked to be no more then seventeen years old and was _very_ attractive. He was very good looking and could make almost anyone fall for him at first sight. The boy was tall with jet black hair and the brightest emerald green eyes. He had on a black leather jacket and a grey T-shirt underneath. On his left ear, at the top of it, he had two small silver earrings. He had on plain dark jeans with silver belts here and there holding grey pockets to the side of both his legs, and plain black biker boots. At first Riku had to blink twice to make sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. Because, on the front of his grey T-shirt, was an Organisation XIII trade mark 'X'.

At the sight of him, the girl in the blue dress put her hands on her hips and put on an annoyed expression.

"Yeah," She huffed, "and exactly what would you know about all that?"

The boy just ignored her and stepped closer. "A power overload like that one is usually brought on by a big event recently in someone's life." He informed them.

"Big event?" Sora asked. "But I can't really think of anything 'big' that's happened to me lately, just the usual." He informed.

"That's not the only—" The girl started but the boy cut her off like she hadn't even begun to say anything.

"Are you sure?" He asked, "I mean power overloads are very rare and usually happen once in a lifetime. But, that overload was bigger then others I've seen—"

"You haven't seen any—"

"Yes I have." The boy continued after the girl and he cut each other off. "There had to have been something big happen to amplify it like that."

"And again," The girl cut in, sounding more annoyed after being cut off so many times. "What exactly would you know about power overloads like this, Hm? Please, sprinkle us with your superior knowledge dust." Sora stared at the girl oddly again.

The boy just rolled his vivid eyes before continuing. "Sora, has a power surge—not so much like that one, but more miner—happened to you before?"

"How did you know my name?" Sora asked, purposely avoiding the question.

"You'll find everybody here knows your name." He answered quickly before repeating his question.

Sora looked to the floor and frowned. "Um—"

"You're not making any sense." Sora was suddenly very grateful that the girl cut in again before he could tell them about the ventilation shafts. "First you say that it's a once in a lifetime then you're asking if it's happened before. Make up your mind!" She shouted. The three teens didn't really understand what her problem was with this boy.

"Because, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time I checked you didn't specialise in this field, Danniel." She said.

"Well then I guess that you don't really know me that well, now do you, Emilia?" The boy, Danniel, shot back, looking at her for the first time since he entered the room.

"I've known you since you were no more then a foot tall. Believe me when I say that there isn't anything more about you to know!"

"This is getting nowhere," He turned toward Sora again, "You were saying,"

"No." The word was out of his mouth before he could even think about answering.

"Ok, well then, I guess it was just a fluke." He said, but Sora noticed something behind his eyes that told him that he wasn't entirely convinced. He turned to ward his "friend", "Happy?"

"Yes." She said, but she didn't seem happy. He turned back toward Sora, Riku and Kairi.

"Uh, sorry for not introducing ourselves. I'm Dan." He introduced, "Miss Attitude over there is Mia." She poked her tongue out at him.

"Nice to meet you guys," Kairi said. "I'm Kairi. This is Riku and that's Sora—but apparently you already know that."

Mia smiled at her. "It's nice to meet you guys, too." She said in a more friendly way. Just then there was a strained grunt come from beside them and the five tuned their heads to find King Mickey just pulling himself out under a large piece of roof. Without even hesitating, Mia and Dan both bolted off toward the King at exactly the same time. They were at his side in an instant and were helping Mickey get out of the rubble. Sora shot his friends a look and they ran off toward the group as well.

When they got there, Dan was struggling to keep the large piece of roof off of the King while Mia was trying to pull him out. Dan let out a grunt of strain and growled, "It won't budge!"

"And I can't pull you out, Sir. You're in there pretty tight." Mia agreed with a huff of frustration before letting go of the King's hand.

"Everybody stand back!" Sora jumped out of his skin at the sound of a loud voice directly behind him. He turned to find Goofy and Donald standing there with Goofy looking very heroic and Donald…looking very embarrassed by Goofy.

Sora sighed and hunched over, clutching his hammering heart. "Jeez, guys!" he complained, "You really need to stop sneaking up on me like that!" But Goofy paid no attention to his former comrade and strode passed Sora, still keeping his heroic stance.

"Don't worry your Majesty!" Goofy said confidently.

"Uh, Goofy…what are you doing—" The King began, sounding a little scared.

"I'll get you out of there, don't worry!"

Goofy straightened up and brought his posture into some sort of Kong-Fu pose and raised his shield above his head. Then, for some completely unknown reason, Goofy let go of all his posture, bringing his shield down by his sides and with a battle cry, he smashed his head into the piece of rubble so fast that there was a loud _**SMASH**_! Than a _**CRACK**_! But the crack didn't come from the rubble. Goofy lifted his head back up and wobbled around to face them. His face had scratches all over it and his two teeth were chipped.

"AAAHH!!! MY TOOTH!!!" Goofy cried in pain before clamping his hands over his mouth and running off in circles. Donald smacked himself in the forehead hard and ran off after Goofy. Donald shouted something at Goofy to get him to stop but the oversized dog only ran into the wall and landed on Donald, crushing the duck under him. A muffled cry of fury came from under Goody but he didn't budge. Mia and Sora both stared at the Wizard and Knight and both tilted their heads to the side in confusion.

Dan blinked twice. "O-_Kay_…not really sure what the point of _that_ was," He muttered and leaned over to Sora.

"Are they usually like this?" He asked.

"Yeah." Sora answered, "You'll get used to it. Trust me." Dan nodded in agreement and went to stand in front of King Mickey.

"Everybody stand back." He ordered and they did what he said. Just then there was a bright flash beside Dan and in his hand appeared a metallic silver Keyblade with black outlines. He pointed the nose of his Keyblade at the piece of rubble and a powerful beam shot out of the blade and onto the stone, ultimately smashing it to pieces. With a grunt, the King lifted himself out of what was left of the stone at that point—which was mainly dirt.

"Ah," The King sighed in relief when he stood up. "Thank you for that."

"No prob." Dan casually shock it of as his Keyblade disappeared. Mia then seemed to remember something and turned to Dan.

"Um, Dan?" She asked.

"Yeah?"

"Hope you didn't mind me asking, but exactly where were you" –she walked up to him and poked him in the chest— "when we were attacked by an army of Bug Eyes and Hollows?"

"Bug Eyes and Hollows?" Riku asked.

"She means Heartless and Nobodies." Dan explained.

"Don't change the subject!" Mia complained. "Where were you?"

"Why, were you worried about me?" Dan teased.

"No!" She argued, looking away. "I- I just wanted to know why you left all the dirty work to us."

"I was busy." He finally answered.

"With what?"

Dan shot a look at Sora, Riku and Kairi. "I was busy fixing that tiny contraption that these people call a Gummi ship." He said with a half smile.

"_You_ fix them?" Riku asked.

"I'm a technician." He shrugged. "But, apart from that, I couldn't fix that thing even if I tried."

"Ha!" Mia exclaimed, snapping his head back to her. "So you admit that you were just slacking off." She poked him again.

"I was not slacking off!"

"Uh-huh, yeah," She turned back the three. "Ignore him; he's just a lazy bum." She snorted.

"And ignore her; she's delusional." He put a hand on her shoulder and she poked her tongue out at him again.

Sora felt a shift of weight beside him and he turned to see Kairi with her eyes closed and looking a little pale. "Kairi are you ok?" Sora asked his voice full of great concern.

"Huh?" She asked sleepily. "Oh, yeah, my head just hurts a little. But, yes, I'm fine." Kairi looked Sora straight in the eye and smiled weakly. She took a step forward but her legs gave out and she ended up falling into Sora's arms.

"No, you are not ok." Said Sora. "You said your head hurt?"

"Um, yeah. I probably just hit it during the battle." She simply said and released herself from Sora's arms and attempted to stand on her own again, only to have her wobble around and loose balance again. This time she fell closer to him. They both felt their pulse quicken and the blood rush to their heads, when their eyes met their faces were only inches apart. They stared into each others eyes before they both blushed and looked away. Sora's eyes landed on Riku's, who rolled his eyes and gave Sora a disbelieving look. Sora just glared at him.

"Donald?" The sound of the Kings voice snapped Sora and Kairi back into reality and they both separated, although Kairi still needed to hold onto Sora for support. There was a quick flash of yellow light under Goofy and her shot up from the ground with a loud shout and began running around again with a smoking back side. Donald shook his head and rushed over to Mickey.

"Yes, your majesty?"

"Could you please do something about the health quality of the people in this room?" Mickey asked, wobbling a bit on his feet.

"Sure, your Majesty! You don't even have to ask." Donald then thrust his feathery hand with his staff in it in the air and watched as it began to glow. There was a brief moment when Donald seemed to freeze in place and the staff began to glow even stronger. Just then the light around Donald wand produced various swirls and orbs in many different colours and Donald jumped in the air.

"MEGA CURE!" Donald shouted and was raised up higher by some invisible force before the light exploded outward from the Wizards staff and swirled around every individual in the room. Moments later when the light dimmed the air seemed clearer and everyone was able to stand up straight again. Pressure was taken away from Sora's shoulder and he turned to the side to see Kairi standing up straight again with the colour back in her face. Kairi looked to Sora and smiled.

"See," she beamed, "I told you I was fine."

"Only after Donald healed you." Riku pointed out.

"Yeah," Sora turned toward Donald. "What was that, by the way? I don't think I've ever seen you use a spell as strong as that one before,"

"You haven't. I only learnt it recently, Sora." Donald told him, in a 'duh' sort of way. King Mickey stepped forward and addressed the crowed.

"Excuse me, everyone. But if I could ask you all to move out of this hall and go to out to our medical room for just a quick check up—in case there are some further injuries. Thank you."

Everyone one began to walk calmly out of the room in an orderly fashion. The King quickly turned around. "Oh! Except you seven." Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mia, Dan, Donald and Goofy all stopped being addressed by the King.

"Sorry, I know you're all tired, but if I could just have a word with all of you." The King said. The five nodded and the large doors closed behind them.

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Well here was the lucky tenth chapter, I hope that battle wasn't too bad—it went on longer then I expected. Well, now you know the girls name and my other OC. I can't tell you how annoying it was having to write 'the girl' over and over again!

**Oh well. I'm hoping to get the eleventh chapter up soon. In the next chapter the gang will be off to other worlds, and you will get to find out what's up with Sora and those weird powers. **

**Please review.**

…**push the button…you know you want to…**

**oooo**

**o o**

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	11. Sweet Dreams

**Hey, here is the eleventh chapter. Enjoy ^-^**

**Once again I do not own Kingdom Hearts.**

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"What is it, your Majesty?" Sora asked once the doors were tightly and firmly shut behind them. The tension in the room was strong, making them all feel rather unconfutable. The King didn't say anything; he only stood there for a few moments looking Sora straight in the eye. It was as if he was trying to have a mental conversation with Sora, but was failing because Sora couldn't understand what he was trying to tell him. But Sora could tell by the look on the Kings face that what he wanted to tell them he didn't seem to like very much. Finally the King dropped his gaze and walked backward away from the group and motioned to their surroundings.

"This." Was all that he said, as if that one word could explain everything that was going through his head.

"What do you me—WOAH!" Sora took a step toward the King, but his foot crashed into something on the broken ground and he fell forward. "Ow…" Sora moaned and lifted himself back up. Sora murmured to himself about what he tripped over and turned around to the pile of rubble at his feet. He didn't see it at first, covered in dirt and rocks as much as it was, but after he looked more closely at the rubble, Sora could see the faintest blue hiding underneath the rock. And he knew what it was almost immediately, and wished that his eyes were just playing tricks on him. Sora kneeled down over the pile and brushed the rocks and dirt off of it. And sure enough it was there. Right there lying on the ground in front of him was his Keyblade.

"What the— How the—" Sora asked the former glamorous object in front of him. The Keyblade wasn't glamorous any more, that's for sure. The keychain was completely smashed, the handle was burnt and the entire length of the blade was broken. In two pieces.

"Is that your Keyblade?" Dan asked in shock.

"How is it broken? Keyblades are the most indestructible things in the entire universe," Mia informed.

"They are." Goofy confirmed.

"Or at least it used to be." Donald cut in.

"But once you don't need the Keyblades anymore they return to their owners," Kairi informed.

"They do." Riku answered. "But how was it just there all this time without Sora even knowing?"

"That's because it doesn't belong to him anymore." They all turned to the King in confusion—especially Sora.

"What do you mean it doesn't belong to me anymore?!" Sora asked frantically, jumping, as usual, to the worst case scenario. "You mean that I can't use a Keyblade anymore?!"

"Sora—" The King started but Sora cut him off.

"But _how_?!" he exclaimed again.

"Sora—"

"Since when can you just stop being a Keyblade wielder?!"

"Sora—"

"You _can't_ just stop, can you?!"

"Sora—"

"I mean, I know I never wanted the thing in the first place, but it's just…" He trailed off.

"_Sora_—" Mickey was getting annoyed with being interrupted.

"And what does that make me now? I can't be one anymore, but do I have any of my other powers still? Or are those gone too? But if it's just my Keyblade then I should still have all the other stuff still, right? I mean, I remember you guys saying that once you're a Keyblade wielder you don't stop ever so then I must still be useful because otherwise what am I still doing here unless—"

"SORA!!" Mickey screamed to get the frantic boy to stop babbling before he could start to hyperventilate.

"Yeah?" Sora asked, his voice full of worry.

"Relax. Breath. And let me explain." King Mickey encouraged.

"Right. Sorry." Sora took a deep breath. "You were saying?" He asked more calmly.

"Ok, first things first; you're still a Keyblade Wielder." Sora let out a sigh of relief. "No one stops. Especially the Keyblade _Master_."

"Right, I knew that." Sora promoted nervously.

"Yeah, _sure_ you did." Riku whispered.

"And secondly," The King continued, "As is said before, that Keyblade doesn't belong to you anymore." Sora frowned in confusion at the Kings words.

"But the reason that it isn't yours anymore, is because it is no longer strong enough for you, Sora." The King finished. They all stared at him in confusion and for a few seconds nobody talked.

"What?" Sora gasped in shock. "Not strong enough? But in the past two years, if I got stronger I could feel it. But I don't feel any different now."

"That's because it doesn't have anything to do with your body, Sora, but your heart."

Sora blinked twice at the King. "You've lost me."

"Of course," The King sighed. "I'm afraid that that's my fault. I should have explained all this to you earlier, Sora. I'll start from the beginning." Sora nodded and Mickey adjusted his position.

"You see," He began, "When every Keyblade Master turns sixteen years of age, then he is no longer able to use just light. But must open his heart to darkness, also." Sora gasped in shock, but the King didn't stop long enough for him to ask questions. "That first moment when you turned sixteen, Sora, is when darkness began to merge in your heart. And when you have darkness merged with light, you get—"

"Twilight." Sora finished in a toneless voice.

"Yes, that's correct." The King nodded. "But the thing is, because you had no idea that this was going to happen, you made no attempt to try and tune your powers. And when a Keyblade Master does not tune his powers, then his heart acts on its own to tune them, expelling out magic that you never even knew you had."

"Like those explosions, that was my powers trying to tune themselves?" Sora asked. The King nodded.

"It makes sense," Sora turned around to Dan who just spoke. "No one can produce light like that without knowing what they're doing." He informed.

"So all you have to do is just tune your powers and you're good." Mia acknowledged.

"Great," Sora turned back to Mickey. "So how do I tune them?"

"Um, yeah, there's the thing…" Mickey said unsure. "Once your heart starts tuning your powers for you, you no longer have to power to take over."

"WHAT?!" Sora exclaimed. "So, what? I'm just gonna be stuck with random explosions here and there?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Sora buried his head in his hands. "I'm afraid that you will have to learn to control your powers by your self, Sora."

Sora's head snapped back up. "But isn't that dangerous?" Kairi asked, absentmindedly taking a step closer to Sora.

"Normally, yes. But I am afraid that there's nothing we can do about it now, fellas." The King said sadly.

"Wait, can't you teach me?" Sora asked Mickey hopefully.

"I can't use twilight, so there fore I wouldn't have a clue where to start teaching you." Mickey answered. "As I said, you're the Keyblade Master, Sora; you _will_ be able to control them. But all the others are only wielders, so we can only use either light" –he motioned toward Kairi and Mia—"Or darkness," He motioned toward Riku and Dan.

"That's why your former Keyblade was destroyed. That Keyblade, Ultima Weapon, was a weapon of light only, so when that explosion of twilight occurred, it was too weak to withstand the power. I'm sorry about this, Sora, I truly am. But you will just have to teach yourself." The King said in a final tone.

"How?" Sora breathed, but somehow the King heard him.

"Just look deep inside your heart. The answer is there." Sora nodded his mind far away. Everyone was silent and staring at Sora who was suddenly very interested in a broken piece of tile on the ground, one million thoughts running through his head. How can he learn to use such power all by himself, with no warning of what it will be like to tune his powers on his own? How _do_ you tune powers? Will he be able to do it? Will he be able to prevent an explosion like that one again? Should he tell Dan about that first twilight power overload? He seemed to know a lot about power overloads, but can he trust some stranger? Sora knew that Dan wasn't 'just some stranger' and that he probable could trust him.

Sora looked over to Dan, standing quietly in the background. He seemed like the type of guy that doesn't like getting involved with other people's problems and likes to just stick to the background, and how he kept his head low and his hands in his pockets showed that he didn't want to get involved _now, _like he had secrets he that he was not contempt to share. Sora then turned his eyes toward Mia. Sora could tell that she was the outgoing type and _would _get involved in places she doesn't belong, but he could tell that she was smart and brave. His mind flashed back to the battle, how she charged at that Heartless that nobody but her seemed to know was there, and how she threw herself in front of Sora to shield him from being attacked by that large Heartless, how she risked being torn in two just to push Sora out of the way of the Heartless' killer claws. Then his mind went back farther, to when they were in the hospital room. Mia seemed determined to make sure that he was ok, which seemed odd to him at the time.

He looked at both of them. It seemed that Sora could trust them, something deep down inside of him was telling him to trust these two mysterious people that he's known for no longer then a couple of hours. He didn't know why, but Sora just knew that he could trust Mia and Dan. The loud voice of King Mickey through the silence snapped Sora out of his thoughts. The King reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden charm. The charm was of two objects. In a bright gold there was a small radiant sun, its beams flowing out confidently. The other half of the keychain was a moon in a slightly dimmer and duller gold and was covering part of the sun. The King outstretched his arm and tossed the charm to Sora, which he caught easily in one hand. Sora examined the charm as the King ordered,

"Hold that in your palm tightly and close your eyes, Sora." Sora did so. At first Sora was aware of a bright warm sensation in his palm before it grew stronger and radiated throughout his entire body. Moments later the heat dimmed and Sora slowly opened one eye to inspect what had just happed. In Sora's hand was not the small keychain anymore, but a large elegant Keyblade. Although the keychain hung off the end of it now. The Keyblade was mostly gold but the handle of the blade was a pearly white on the right side and an onyx black on the left. On thing that felt familiar to Sora was the body of the blade which was a similar design to the Ultima Weapon except now it was a bright gold with black and white outlines and the blade was a larger replica of the Keychain, but the moon was now onyx and the sun white with golden outlines on both. Sora inspected the object in awe.

"Eclipse." Said the King, snapping Sora back into reality. "A Keyblade which harvest an equal balance of both light and darkness. See, now you aren't Keyblade-less." Mickey smiled at Sora in a comforting way and Sora felt the corners of his mouth curl up to smile in return.

"Well," Mickey said, "I can see that you're all tired. You should go now and get a god nights sleep. Donald and Goofy will show you guys where you will be staying for the night." The Wizard and the Knight both nodded and started to lead Sora, Riku and Kairi out the door, with Mia and Dan following behind, since they already knew where they were staying. The King stopped them again.

"Oh, wait sorry!" They all stopped and turned back around. "Sora, Riku and Kairi I need you to be here at nine O' clock in the morning tomorrow, dressed and ready to go off and start your journey. I will explain farther in the morning. Sleep well." He added before they all left.

* * *

Apparently "sleep well" didn't apply to Sora. That night Sora lay in his bed, tossing and turning in his sleep. The sheets were thrown off him, the pillows lay on the floor, his fists were clenched, and his hair stuck to his forehead and around his pale face, sweat covered his entire body from head to toe. Sora's breathing was heavy and uneven as the boy rolled restlessly around on his bed, just missing falling of the edges and falling flat on his face on the ground. His eyelids were shut tight and his teeth were clenched together so hard that his jaw began to go numb. Sora was having a nightmare.

Nightmares were very uncommon for the chirpy, happy-go-lucky boy and when he did dream, they were usually about his home, his friends and the beach. But Sora never often has nightmares. Or maybe he does, but just can never remember them. But when Sora does remember his nightmares, they are usually about the same thing: being chased through the worlds by Heartless and Nobodies. But this dream was different. It didn't involve Heartless or Nobodies, it didn't involve any of his favourite worlds being taken down by Organisation XIII, and it didn't involve his friends in danger.

Sora lay face down on the ground in a field. Long brown grass grew around Sora's sleeping body, how they still stood in their condition was a mystery. All around him, spread out spaciously were trees, grey in colour because of their dying form, leafless and stood at about twice the height of Sora. A broken stone path lay in the centre of the field; pebbles chipped and most covered in dirt and had grass growing out of it. At the end of the path were two white statues covered in a dead, grey moss and half of there faces broken off and lay in one million tiny pieces on the grass. Connected to the two statues was a large golden gate that hung open in a way that was supposed to be welcoming. At least it would have been gold once upon a time, but now stood rusted and dim in colour, dents everywhere along the once beautiful design. The broken path continued beyond the gate and was surrounded by an eerie fog.

Sora's bright blue eyes fluttered open and he lifted himself on all fours and inspected his strange surrounding. Sora noted that he was back in his cloths that the three good fairies had made for him last year, the ones that he had out grown and no longer fit. But they fit now. Confused, Sora turned his gaze at the long dead grass that would reach up to his knee if he were standing up, reached out and took a handful of the grass, analysing it. It felt like paper and smelled strongly like ash. With his thumb, Sora stroked the papery surface of the grass and it dissolved almost instantly at the added pressure. As soon as the first flake of ash made contact with the rest of the grass-paper, all of the grass surrounding Sora dissolved outward around him leaving a dirty terrain in its place.

Sora frowned and rose to his feet. He could hear whispers in the air coming from somewhere Sora couldn't quite put his finger on. Sora's spine went cold and a frightened shudder ran all the way up his body. He looked around him once more before moving toward the gate, something leading the way for him. It didn't seem like a dream to Sora because it just looked and felt so _real_. The whispers became louder and louder as he made his way along the curved path toward the bent gates, and Sora could hear a deep voice talking in the distance, but still was too far away to make out any words. The fog seemed to follow Sora through the creepy gates and swirled and danced around his legs as he walked through what looked like a town square. Around him were old buildings that looked like they were knocked down with force, burnt down, and some left to wither away with time.

The voice was becoming clearing as Sora was lead along the stone path by some invisible force. He could now tell that the voice was one of a male and was…singing? Sora strained his ears in the silence to hear what the man was singing.

"…_Sweet dreams…_" Sora eventually heard as he turned around another dead tree, unknowingly moving toward the voice. "_…Are made of these…_"

The melody was becoming louder and clearer for Sora to hear. "_…Who am I to disagree?_" Sora frowned and began to walk faster through the dead village. The voice continued,

"…_I travel the world and the seven seas, everybody's looking for something…_" When Sora turned around another decayed statue the voice was now 100% clear and Sora could make out every word without having to strain his ears. It was also very close.

"Some of them what to use you," He sang as Sora turned around a corner down another street, his pace growing with every step he took. "Some of them want to get used by you,"

There was a thick fog up ahead and Sora's running was just off of a run now. Sora ran toward the fog, tripping and stumbling over pieces of rock and weeds sticking out of the path.

"Some of them want to abuse you," Sora was running now, coming closer and closer to the wall of fog. "Some of them want to be abused…" Sora charged head first into the fog and came out the other side to a bigger village square then before. All the buildings were gone in this one with hanging dead trees in their place. Unlike the path the brown stone ground here was perfectly smooth and shone in the moonlit night. In the centre was a large round fountain that looked like water hasn't streamed out of it in decades, grey stone chipped and more grass growing out of the bowl. But standing in front of the fountain was a figure. His arms were out stretched and he had his back to Sora, but seemed to be admiring the broken landmark. He took a deep breath then started his song from the beginning again.

The man was dressed in a long white robe with light blue outlines and what looked like some sort of writing. His hood was up and he was holding some kind of staff that reached taller then him. Staring at the man for some time Sora then began to move forward again, taking each step with care. The man kept on singing like he didn't even know Sora was there. Maybe he didn't? But it wasn't until Sora was a good four meters away from him that he stopped suddenly and dropped his outstretched arms.

"I knew you'd come." The stranger said in a deep voice that made Sora's spine go cold again. "But then again, I called you here." He let out a short cackle at something he felt was amusing. Sora just kept his distance and kept a watchful eye on the man. By his voice, Sora could tell that this was an old man.

"Do not be afraid to speak, boy." The man said, catching Sora off guard. "You don't have anything to be afraid of, Sora." He spoke Sora's name very carefully, as if he would he punished if he got the pronunciation wrong.

"How do you know my name?" Sora blurted without thinking.

"Well, doesn't everyone?" The man laughed again and Sora took a step back. As soon as Sora's foot hit the stone again the man stopped laughing and turned around. His hood was hiding his entire head so Sora couldn't see his face, but what he could see were his hands. The old mans hands were as grey and withered as the trees surrounding them. At first he jus stood there staring at Sora, then outstretched his arms again above his head.

"Do you love what I have done with this world?" He asked Sora. "At first this place was just a big, empty rock, a dried up waist land of what used to be. But now…" He looked at Sora again and cheered in delight, "I have turned it into paradise!" He laughed again, louder and full of joy making Sora gulp in fear. "Tell me what you think about it, Sora, don't be shy." He promoted.

"It's, um…" Sora hesitated. "It's a little dark for my taste." Sora finally choked out and the man laughed again. Sora guessed that probably spending time in _this_ place on his own had driven the old man crazy. Without thinking again, acting on fear, Sora spoke.

"Who are you?" He then looked at the man's hands and added, "_What_ are you?"

"I, Sora, am a being not of the living, but neither of the dead." He answered with another chuckle.

"So like a ghost," Sora guessed.

"No. A ghost is of the dead. _I _am a spirit." The man corrected Sora.

"But isn't that the same thing?" Sora frowned.

"A ghost belongs fully to the land of the underworld. A spirit is a soul that lives in between the two worlds." He turned toward the sky and shouted, "Like this world!"

Sora turned his head to the sky. Strangely enough, it was a deathly shade of dark green with dim violet stars scattered along the sky. There was not a cloud in the sky, and it seemed that the sky was the most attractive thing on this land. But there was no moon. Then how was there moonlight? The man thrust a grey, bony finger up in the air.

"That," He said, "was the only thing that I couldn't change. Although, I admit that I was sneaky and changed the colour from blue to green, just to add to the edge the rest of my world gives."

"You didn't answer my question." Sora snapped, sending the strange man out of his trance and back to Sora. "Who are you?"

"I do not have a name, Sora. I have not t many centuries. But I am referred to as The Unnamed One." He explained. Sora frowned again.

"Am I dreaming?" Sora asked.

"Right now? Yes, you are dreaming, Sora." Sora could feel The Unnamed One burning holes in his eyes and averted his gaze from the man. But The Unnamed One only frowned disapprovingly at Sora behind his hood.

"You are quite rude to such an old man like me, Sora. Has no one ever told you to respect your elders?" Sora detected a hint of anger in his voice. "Using such a harsh voice and breaking eye contact when I am speaking to you." Sora didn't notice the weeds and moss on the ground transform into a dead vine and tie themselves lightly around his ankles. "Now tell me, Boy." The vines tightened their grip.

"Is that anyway to treat someone you have just met?" The Unnamed One didn't wait for Sora to answer because with just the slightest flinch of his finger the vines wrapped around the entire length of Sora's legs and pulled his to the ground. The vines tangled themselves around Sora's chin as The Unnamed One approached Sora.

"Is it?" He repeated and the vines moved Sora's head from side to side violently as The Unnamed One said, "No, it isn't." In a voice that sounded like he was addressing a misbehaving child. Sora thrust his hand in front of him and made to summon his Keyblade. But nothing happened. Sora tried again and again but ended with the same result. The Unnamed One cackled that same insane cackle.

"Oh, your Keyblades do not work here." He informed Sora and laughed again. Sora struggled on the ground and attempted to get the weeds off of him.

"Let me go!" Sora yelled at him. "This is a dream, right? My dream. So you have to do what I say. Now let go of me!"

The Unnamed One laughed again, this time a mocking laugh. "Stop! You're too funny! Oh, how little you know!" He broke out in hysterics.

"W- What do you mean?" Sora asked, frightened. The Unnamed One bent down to Sora.

"You don't control this place, boy. I do." Just then the vines grew larger and their grip on Sora's legs tightened, making him yell out in pain. The Unnamed One boomed with laughter at Sora again and he clutched his side.

"Seriously, Stop! You should be a comedian, you know that?" He kept on laughing as Sora winced, hissed and yelled in pain when the vines tightened their grip. Sora could feel boiling anger well up in him and he growled in anger.

"STOP LAUGHING!!" Sora screamed, catching The Unnamed One off guard. "LET ME GO!" He screamed again, unable to hold back his anger.

"Aw, but why?" The Unnamed One said sadly.

"Because I said so, that's why! NOW DO IT!" The Unnamed One moved around to Sora.

"Oh, fine, fine, fine." He said unwillingly. "Release him." Sora felt a sting when the vines let go of his legs and neck. Sora lifted himself up, but was unable to stand due to the excruciating pain in his legs. Sora looked down where the vines grew thorns and stabbed them in his skin. Sora frowned in confusion. If this was a dream, then how could he feel the pain so much? Then something else grabbed him from behind, pulling Sora to his feet. Sora cried out in shock when he saw long black clawed arms grasp his arms. The Unnamed One laughed at Sora's shock and gestured to the creatures that held Sora.

Sora was able to turn his head around just far enough to see the creatures. They were big and black horrific looking creatures with razor sharp, barred blue teeth with some type of dark green substance leaking out of its mouth. It hand a long slim body and were twice the size of Sora, it had feet like large lumps and its eyes were large and yellow. The Unnamed One chuckled at Sora's shock and looked at the creatures.

"These, are the Ghosts, Sora." He introduced. "And very useful things if I must say." The Unnamed One turned to the one on the right and it put its slimy, clawed hand over Sora's cranium. _**BAM!!**_ It hit him like a bullet through the heart, as soon at the creature touched his head, an excruciating pain ripped through Sora's entire body. In fact, it felt like he _was_ being ripped apart. Sora screamed out in pain and The Unnamed One only laughed at him like all his pain was nothing. As Sora screamed his laughter grew stronger and stronger until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Ah, stop, stop, stop!" He choked out between laughter. "I can't take it!" The pain suddenly lifted off of Sora and he coughed from screaming so loud.

"Ok, Ok! Do it again! Do it again!" He cheered and the Ghost on the right placed its hand on Sora's head.

This time it felt like Sora was on fire, being burnt on a stake with a pain that wouldn't end. This time Sora didn't scream so loud and he eventually stopped and clenched his teeth together, not wanting to give The Unnamed One the satisfaction of laughing at his pain. The fire suddenly stopped and Sora unclenched his teeth and exhaled loudly. The Unnamed One stopped laughing and stared at Sora in wonder.

"Hmmm…" He said thoughtfully, "You are quite stronger. Stronger then I thought you would be." With another twitch of his finger, the Ghosts released Sora and he fell to the ground. Sora coughed again and stared up at The Unnamed One in pure hatred. The Unnamed One knelt down in front of Sora.

"Unfortunately all our fun has to end now." He said. "So this is where we say goodbye."

Sora's vision became blurry and began to fade. But before everything went completely black, The Unnamed One looked at Sora again and said,

"Oh and, Sora…" He paused. "Welcome to Broken Kingdom."

Everything went black.

----------------

Sora woke up with a start. He shot up from the mattress violently with a shocked cry, his head automatically reaching to his legs without his permission and he clutched where the vines cut his skin. Nothing. No cuts, no blood, no pain. _…Of course not. It was just a dream…_Sora thought over and over. Sora then touched his forearm where those monsters held him. His hand then drifted to his throat where the vines held him. His throat stung and it took Sora a few minutes to realise that he'd been screaming himself hoarse in his sleep. Although his head hurt a little, where those Ghosts mad ripped and burned him. _…Ghosts…_Sora thought, his body shivering from the memory. Sora told himself that those creatures did not exist. That they weren't real. And so was The Unnamed One. They were just a bunch of fictional characters that his mind created. They weren't real…

Sora turned to the bedside table to examine the time. 1:30 am. Sora knew that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep for the rest of the night…_morning_, so he got up, stripped out of his pyjamas that were drenched wet with sweat, pulled on a plain black T-shirt and khaki pants and practically ran out the door. Sora lost track of how many minutes he was wandering the empty halls of the still sleeping castle. But it wasn't until he came to a hall with a big clock at the end of it the read 3:25 that Sora realised that he'd been walking around aimlessly for nearly two whole hours. Sora stood there staring at the clock with a blank expression for a few minutes until he heard footsteps behind him and he turned to meet warm indigo eyes that he loved so much.

"Couldn't sleep?" Kairi asked when she approached him. Sora's throat felt rough so he simply nodded.

"Me neither." She answered. She had her pyjamas on with a pink robe on top and pink bunny slippers, which made Sora smile. Looking at her warm slippers Sora then noticed that his bare feet felt very cold on the hard tile of Disney Castle. Sora stood there staring at here for a while, he didn't really feel like talking and his throat still hurt, but there was still something he was meaning to do.

"Kairi," Sora managed to croak out, "can we…talk?" He asked.

"Sure, come on." Kairi took Sora by his hand and led them out of the cold hall way and to her room. Once inside Kairi went and sat on her bed again and Sora, feeling slightly unconfutable, stayed by the door. Sora slid his hands in his pockets and looked at his feet shyly. Kairi noticed and motioned him to sit down.

"What are you standing there for? Came and sit down." Sora hesitated then slowly walked over to Kairi's bed, sat down and pulled his feet up so he was sitting cross legged. That dream's made him feel really jumpy and paranoid. Sora kept his head low then lifted it up and looked Kairi in the eyes seriously.

"Look, Kairi, I just wanted to apologize for…for the way I acted back on Destiny Islands." Sora finally choked out.

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked confused.

"After the first day of school." He explained, "I kind of lost it and got angry at you for no apparent reason and I said some things that I'm not entirely proud of. I'm really sorry Kairi." Sora broke the gaze again and stared at his hands.

"Well, you shouldn't be." Kairi said and Sora snapped his head back up.

"What?" He asked confused.

"You're sorry about what exactly, Sora? Getting angry?" She laughed lightly. "Sora, you don't have to apologize every time that you get angry. It's only human." She told him.

"I know, but I still feel bad—"

Sora was suddenly cut off by Kairi's fingers over his mouth and Sora felt the blood rushing to his head, the pain in his throat completely forgotten, "No, I don't want to head it." She said sternly. "You will not apologize to me because there is nothing to apologize for, Sora Hikari, do you understand?"

Sora began to protest again with Kairi's fingers still over his mouth, until she gave him a stern look and he finally nodded in agreement. "Good," Kairi whispered as she slowly took her fingers off of his lips. Both their eyes were locked on each other as Kairi laid her hand back down beside her body. Kairi felt her face get hot as she stared into Sora's big, blue, sparkling eyes, her fingertips tingling where she touched his lips. Kairi remained in her trance until Sora cleared his throat and turned his eyes back down to his hands again, snapping her back into reality. Kairi blushed and looked away.

"So, uh…why couldn't you sleep?" Kairi asked, changing the subject. Sora just shrugged, remembering the pain in his throat.

"That's not an answer," Kairi pushed on.

"Nervous." Sora finally answered.

"Really? What do you of all people have to nervous about tomorrow…uh, _today_?" Kairi asked. Sora just remained silent, unable to think of an answer. So, he just did the one thing he could do: tell the truth.

"Dreams." He told her. "Nightmares, actually."

"Since when do you get nightmares, Sora?" Kairi asked.

"I don't usually."

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked in a comforting way. Sora shook his head eagerly, not wanting to remember. "No." He answered quickly.

"It's ok, Sora, you can tell me,"

N_o_—" Sora said again louder and his voice broke on the last letter. Sora's hand flew to his throat and he winced in pain. "Are you ok? What's wrong?" Kairi asked her voice full of concern.

"Um, nothing." Sora tried to cover up but was shattered with another wince.

"Oh, really?" Kairi said suspiciously. "Because people don't just wince over nothing." Sora rubbed his neck one last time and put his hand back down by his side. Kairi kept her eyes locked on him and her expression seemed almost hurt. "Sora," she said softly. "You _can_ trust me. You know that, right?"

"I know that, and I _do_ trust you—how can I not trust you?" He answered. "I just…I just don't want to discuss it." Sora said in a final tone, half because he didn't want to relive that horrifically realistic dream and half because his throat was killing him. Kairi finally nodded in defeat and they started talking about anything else. About that morning, what Gummi ship they would be travelling in, which world they would be going to first, Sora's new Keyblade, etc. After a while Sora's mopiness drowned away and for once in a long time Sora's excited self shot through. He told Kairi about all the different worlds that they were going to visit, about the people on them, about which ones were his favourite, about the nicest ones, and so on. Sora began to tell Kairi about which worlds that he thinks she'll enjoy. Sora told her that she'll probably like the Pride Lands and Atlantica the best and he did warn her that the some people in Port Royal weren't very friendly at all, but nonetheless to steer clear of "friendly" pirates. Kairi just giggled at that (and of the protective tone is Sora's voice when he said it).

"Oh! You'll also like Halloween Town," Sora chimed on, his throat not hurting as much.

"Halloween Town?" Kairi asked in an almost frightened tone. "But I've never really liked Halloween, Sora. It's to…scary and dark for me. That's why I prefer Christmas." Kairi informed and Sora laughed at her. "What? Why are you laughing?"

"Oh, you'll see," Sora managed between laughs.

Kairi frowned. "Well, if you say so. But you have to promise to protect me from any…ghosts or monsters or whatever they have there."

Sora stopped laughing and peeked up at her through his chestnut bangs shyly. "Ok," He said cutely with a smile and slight blush leaking on to his features. "Don't worry, Kai, you'll be safe with me." Kairi smiled gratefully before the time on the clock caught her eye. It was already ten-to-eight and the two teens didn't even notice dawn break outside. Kairi looked back at Sora, secretly not wanting him to leave.

"It's nearly eight," She informed sadly. "I guess we should start getting ready."

"Yeah, I should go. I've been here for a few hours, anyway. You're probably already sick of me," Sora joked, not wanting to leave either.

Kairi giggled and said, "Oh, I could never be sick of you even if I wanted, Sora." That made Sora smile. Sora made to leave but then turned back around.

"What was that the King said yesterday? Dressed and ready to begin our journey or something like that," Sora asked.

"I guess he means those travelling cloths that we got a few months back," Kairi pointed out and Sora nodded in agreement. With a quick "Goodbye" Sora left Kairi's room and made his way over to his.

* * *

Sora ran all the way to his room to find his door swung open just how he'd left it that morning. When Sora got inside he could _really_ see the damage that he had done the night before. His pyjamas were dumped on the floor in a piled mess and were no longer wet. Now in the light he could se the state that his bed was in. The pillows were scattered all around the room and Sora wondered how they got to some of the places that they were, all the blankets on top lay in a crumbled mountain on the floor beside the bed and the last remaining sheet that managed to remain on the mattress was messy and some of the naked mattress was exposed. Sora looked over the room once more with a sigh and closed the door behind him.

There were two options. Either Sora could clean up the mess himself or he could leave it for the brooms to clean up and risk raising suspicion on why Sora's bed had been turned inside-out. With another sigh Sora decided that he may as well just fix the mess himself. Sora started with the bed, putting all the sheets back together and picked up the many pillows and placed them all back in their original places. After he was done Sora stood back to inspect his job. It wouldn't earn him any points from any maid but it was better then before. Sora then picked up his pyjamas, folded them and then packed them away. Sora noted that it was time to get dressed.

A few months ago, Sora, Riku and Kairi all received packages from Disney Island. The three good fairies had made them all new travelling cloths for their new journey, saying in the letter that came with them that "their old one were outdated and they needed something fresh". In the letter it also told them that if there were any problems with the cloths or if they didn't fit right to send them back for re-tailoring. The fairies received packages back from both Kairi and Riku; Kairi's being too big and Riku's too small. They received no package back from Sora. In reality, Sora never even opened the box. It still had the ribbons on it and everything. Sora walked over to the draws and pulled the yellow box out. Sora stared at the yellow tint with friendly sky blue ribbon and summoned his Keyblade, slicing the ribbon and listening to the soft rattle as it fell to the floor.

Sora lightly lifted the yellow lid that had the words "To Sora" written on it and he examined the new cloths that he had to ware for the first time. As Sora lifted the cloths out of the box and set them beside on the bed, he suddenly cursed himself for never opening it sooner. What if they didn't fit? He would have to walk out there looking like an idiot. Sora had been so sulky all those months ago, having just gotten home and being with his two best friends again and then they all had to go through that chaos like the past two years all over again. But Sora was over that now and actually was excited to travel the universe again with the only thing he had to worry about now was those powers…

Looking over at the clock and seeing the time, 8:40, Sora knew that it was time to be getting ready. He shoved the cloths on his body quickly and moved over to the mirror, waiting for the worst. But once he was in front of the full length mirror in the corner of the room, Sora was shocked to find that everything fit perfectly. Sora's outfit was mostly black. For his torso Sora had a smoky onyx vest with a bright silver zipper that stuck out and metal shoulder caps like his previous travel cloths. Underneath there was a dark red T-shirt with gold outlines and a symbol in the middle with a darker shade of red. After staring at the faint design for a while Sora eventually realised that it was an outline of his crown necklace. For his hands he had a lighter shade of black fingerless gloves that reached a couple inches below Sora's elbow with red highlights and golden outlines. Sora's usual shorts that he had had in his previous journeys were now replaced by full length black pants with red knee pads and the same onyx as the vest for the other half of the pants. There were blood red cuffs with a golden outline. Sora had two gold pockets with the same blood red as the cuffs on his pants on each of his legs with red belts holding them up and black, red, gold and bright silver shoes. His silver crown necklace shimmered as it hung around Sora's neck.

Sora inspected himself in the mirror happily, glad that he didn't look like an idiot, the way he thought he'd look. It was almost nine O' clock so Sora thought he may as well make his way over to the destroyed hall now. Sora packed up the box and the cloths he had on before and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Sora stood at the entrance of the large room with his jaw practically hitting on the ground. The destroyed room was no more, but back to the way that it looked last night and had always looked. The tiled were smooth again, the walls were in one piece, the Kings throne and podium looked as good as new and there actually was a roof! It was as if nothing had happened. Sora closed his mouth walked more into the room, the shocked expression yet to leave his features. Sora looked around the room until he found Riku standing over on the opposite wall involved in a conversation with Mia and Dan, who he was surprised to see here this morning.

Riku was dressed in a cyan sleeveless jacket that showed off his well muscled arms with dark blue on the shoulders and the same colour for the two pockets on either side of his chest. Like Sora, the ends of Riku's jacket were rimmed with bright silver zippers. Two green belts that were sewn into each side of the jacket crossed over each other in the middle and over the zipper. Riku noted that it would be a bit difficult to get the jacket off, him having to un-hook the belts that looked like they were secured pretty tightly to get the thing off. Sora noted that it was a strange design, too. But then again, nothing that came out of the grasp and magic wands of the three good fairies really represented the term "normal". On Riku's hands were bright cyan gloves with two smaller belts the same as his jacket criss-crossed over the back of his hands. He had dark blue full length pants that looked kind of like jeans but were made for rough battle fields and harsh climates. He had a dark forest green belt with may blue pockets hanging off from it and a bright silver badge in the centre of the belt that Sora noted looked oddly like the Organisation XIII 'X', but Sora didn't want to mention _that_, not really wanting to loose his head on the first day. There were cyan coloured thick cuffs of the end of Riku's pants and dark blue sneakers.

Dan was dressed the same as he was last night, hands in his pockets as well, and Mia was back to the attire that she had on when Sora and Riku first saw her in that hospital room. As Sora looked at Mia that same pin prick lightly stabbed at his heart like it always did when he saw her. And, as usual, he couldn't understand why the girl looked so familiar. Sora knew for a fact that he had never net the girl before. But still… Riku and Mia both laughed at something and the ends of Danniel's lips just sightly pulled up. _…Seems to me that that guy doesn't look like he does a lot of smiling…_ Sora thought as he waved over at the three. Riku waved back and made a swift motion in the air for Sora to come over and join them. Sora was just about to take a step when something by the door caused him to freeze and his heart to momentarily stop. Or _someone_.

Kairi stood in the door way of the large room, and judging by the look on her face, she too was slightly confused about how the room was back to normal within just a few hours. Kairi had on a long open amaranth pink jacket with sleeves that ended just above her elbows and the hung down to the back of her knees. The back of it was slit along the majority of it from her thighs and a hood rimmed with white fluff. The way that the jacket was made looked like it couldn't even zip up, and instead of bright silver zippers like Sora and Riku had, there was just white fluff. Again, strange design. She had an electric blue tank top and bright yellow bracelets on each wrist. Like Sora, Kairi had some kind of emblem on the front of her top in a slightly darker colour. Sora's eyebrows pulled together in confusion when he realised that the emblem on Kairi's tank top was also a crown. She had on a pair of dark red short shorts with a belt like Riku's with many pockets and compartments on it. To top off her outfit Kairi had on long faded brown boots that came up to her knees.

Sora continued to stare at Kairi with an uneven heartbeat and completely forgot about Riku's invitation. A small smile slowly made its was onto Sora's features without him knowing and he continued to stand there frozen until a loud cry from behind him caused Sora to snap back into reality and yelp in surprise. Sora shot around so fast that it almost gave him a whiplash and met the smug and humour filled expressions of Donald and Goofy.

"Ya know, Sora," Goofy choked through giggles, "you've been really jumpy lately."

"Yeah," Donald agreed. "Living on an Island—a Safe World nonetheless—and not being attacked by Heartless and Nobodies every five minutes has made you an easy prey. You're getting sloppy." Donald held a feathery finger up in the air in front of Sora's nose and _tsk_ed.

"I- I am not getting sloppy!" Sora defended himself but the smug expressions of his friends didn't lighten.

"No, just distracted." Goofy pointed out, "But you always did have _something_ that distracted you in our journeys."

"Uh, what do you mean?" Sora asked nervously. Donald and Goofy looked at each other with a knowing smile.

"Sora, a _longing distraction_. One of immense _feelings_ one might find with a brave _knight_ for a beautiful _princess_." Donald chimed happily.

"You— you aren't making any sense…" Sora said again in a worried tone.

"When Maxie was a kid," Goofy started, "I remember reading him a story about a _knight _on his way to save a _princess_ locked away in a tower by an _evil witch_. Or to be more specific, a certain _brunette_ off to save a certain _read_-_head_. Sound familiar to you? Hmmm?"

Sora averted his gaze when the two chuckled again. "I honestly have no idea what you guys are talking about."

"Sora we could see you drooling from all the way across the room." Donald informed dryly.

"I was not drooling!" Sora exclaimed.

"Yes you were," They said together.

"No I wasn't!"

"Yes you were,"

"NO I WAS NOT!"

"You were not what?" Suddenly came a voice from behind him.

"Whoa!" Sora cried and shot around to face a shocked Kairi.

"Are you ok, Sora?" She asked sweetly.

"He's just jumpy," Commented Goofy and Sora shot around again.

"I am not jumpy!"

"Yes you are,"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are,"

"No I'm not!!"

"Yes you are,"

"I AM NOT JUMPY!!" Sora shouted again.

"Who's not jumpy?"

"Whoa!" Sora jumped out of his skin and shot around to face Mia, Dan and Riku. "Weren't you just over there?!"

"Yes, Sora," Dan answered as if he were addressing an insane person, "we _were_ over there. But there are these wonderful things called 'legs' that allow us to travel from over _there_ to over _here_. Perhaps you have heard of them, 'legs'."

Sora's eyes narrowed at Dan and Mia wacked him in the stomach. "Smartass." She commented. He just shrugged.

"But you are a bit jumpy, Sora." Riku cut in. "What's the matter; find the bogeyman hanging out in your closet?"

"You're hilarious, you know that?" Sora asked dryly.

"But, Sora," Sora turned his attention to Kairi who put a hand on his arm. "You really have been jumpy, I noticed that last night."

"What?" Mia blurted out and Kairi turned to her shocked expression and realised what she had said.

"Uh, both of us couldn't sleep and we just talked, that's all." Kairi covered.

Without anyone noticing, Mia and Dan turned to each other. Mia smiled a big, toothy, smug smile and Dan just rolled his eyes, shrugged and _almost_ smiled. After a long and awkward silence the five returned back to what they were doing before, leaving Sora and Kairi by them selves—the subject on Sora's 'jumpiness' all but forgotten. Sora eventually noticed that Kairi was staring at him and turned toward her with a confused expression. Kairi had her hand on her chin and her eyes were locked on his torso. Sora looked down and examined his vest.

"Do I have a bug on me?" He asked.

Kairi straightened up and smiled at Sora before pointing to her own top. "Look, we match." She said.

Sora examined the crown, "Oh, the crown. Yeah, we do match." He smiled in return.

"So, Sora, how do I look?" She said before doing a quick twirl so that her long open jacket extended outward. Sora looked her over, blushing, and smiled. "You look great," He answered. "Really…fluffy."

Kairi looked Sora over again and seemed to consider something. "What?" He asked. Kairi didn't answer; she only raised one finger and went to walk around Sora. She had walked around him twice and stopped exactly where she started. When she stopped, Kairi looked up at him again and placed her hands on her hips. "Hmmm, you know what I noticed?" She asked

"What?"

"I noticed—and I don't know if it's just me—but your outfits seem to get darker and darker every time." She motioned to Sora's new cloths that, besides a few dark colours and a bit of gold, were completely black. Kairi suddenly felt her blood rush to her face and a small blush slowly begin to creep its way onto her features. Even though she thought that all that black was too dark for her hyperactive, happy-go-lucky friend, she couldn't fail to admit that black did soot Sora very well, and it seemed to make his already bright blue eyes glow even brighter—if it were possible. Feeling the blush grow bigger Kairi bowed her head so that her wine red hair hid her face. Sora frowned and moved closer to Kairi and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Kairi?" Kairi slowly lifted her head back up so that her eyes met his. Sora cocked his head to the side cutely and stared down at her. Sora had grown a bit in the past year and now stood at least five inches taller than her, so that they were no longer the same height.

"Uh…" She was at a loss for words. "Y-yes, I'm…uh,"

"Oh, good! We're all here." The sound of the King's voice booming throughout the large room saved Kairi. She sighed in relief and pulled at Sora's arm again. "Come on," She said and they walked into the centre of the room. King Mickey was standing on the podium again, mostly because he was too short and if he stood on the ground with everyone else, he wouldn't be able to see them all. But that didn't help Donald much either.

"Now, first things first; goodmorning to all of you. It's going to be a very busy day today so I hope that you all go a good night's sleep and are perfectly rested up—" Sora snorted at that, much louder then he had intended to to. Everyone turned around to face the brunette, who blushed and muttered a quick "Sorry" and gestured for the King to go on.

"Yes, um, well...what was I saying?" Mickey asked confused, still staring at Sora strangely.

"You were lecturing us about sleep." Dan quickly translated, in a quite board like manor.

"Uh, right. As I was saying, the next few months will be, no doubt, quite hard and rest will not be a fair option most of the time." The king finnished before a worried look once again crossed his face and he paused, not quite sure how to continue further. Riku seemed to notice this and spoke up.

"Everything ok, Your Majesty?" He asked.

"No." He answered. "There is something else that I need to tell you..."

**To be Continued...**

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**Please review.**

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	12. Dark Alliances

Heeeeelllllllllllooooooo! It's me, Gelly-mac! (Just in case you were wondering ^-^) Yeah, so I had time and was IMMENSELY board, so I figured "Hey, why not write?" So here I am! Yeah, so this chapter is just a little more insight on the baddies in this story.

Oh! Just a quick thank you to all the people who have reviewed this story so far. I really appreciate it, guys! ^-^

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts

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Enjoy! ^-^

The dark rain beated down angrily on the hard surface of the dieing land, and the clouds in the distance became a darker and darker shade of grey every moment, the consistent thunder and lightning boomed and growled across the night sky. A shadowy figure hastily approached a large, dark, withered old castle that looked like it were to collapse at any moment of provoction. The figure dragged his feet along the ground clumsily, clutching his leg with one tight balled hand while the other clutched the burnt fabric of his cloche to keep it together. The ground was rigid and dry, not one single source of vegetation in miles—it seemed like there hasn't been for quite a long time—and the man stumbled and tripped over stray, broken pieces of stone. As he walked along a dark brown path to the castle, a strange creature of some sort seemed to crawl out of the darkness and clambered up to the man, only to be kicked away harshly and painfully, sending the creature whimpering back into the darkness in which it came from.

"Useless paracite." The man snarled to himself, speaking in a thick, deep English accent, and continued to squirm up to the castle.

Once the man reached the the entrance, he was greeted by huge brown doors that reached up for miles and miles, to the point where the top of them wasn't visible to the naked eye. The man growled at the doors before stepping closer, placing one hand on it and whispering a word to it.

"_Tenebrae_." Half a heartbeat later the two doors flew open at such immense speed that if he happened to blink at the moment, he would have missed it. The man staggered backwards in shock and rolled his eyes. One moment later he slowly began to walk into the castle, murmuring something along the lines of "New technology. They say it's _much_ better...yeah right".

The man limped up to a throne like chair in the far side of the extremely large room, and knelt before a figure that seemed ,slightly, startled by the clocked figure's entrance.

"I have returned, Master." The man said, then added after, "In success."

"Your mission went well?" The Master asked as he rose from his seat.

"Extremely." The man responded as he too rose to his feet.

"Excellent, Professor. You have done well." The Master walked down the long set of stairs to get to the ground level of the large room to meet The Professor. The Professor shifted his weight two seconds to late to realise that that was not such a good idea. Pain from his injured leg shot through his body like a wild fire as he winced in pain. The Master noticed this and walked over to his friend faster.

"What's happened?" He demanded.

"I reached a bit of a predicament along the way, but I handled it." The Professor reassured him quickly, not entirely wanting to get into great detail. The Master narrowed his eyes and stared at him for a few moments. The Professor realised what he was doing and sighed in fright, waiting of the worst. The Master's eyes snapped open again and he glared down at The Professor, fury in his expression.

"You went to Disney castle!" He roared, his voice echoing through the large room. "After I specifically gave you orders to stay well away from that place!" The Master threw his arms up in the air. "And you expose yourself like this! How could you be so careless?!"

Fear swam through The Professor's eyes and he hunched over his back, bowing in respect for the fuming man. "I am sorry, my Master. I truly am. My intentions were only to check up on the warning." He said. "To make sure the Heartless were going by on their orders."

"No matter your intentions, you still disobaied my orders, Davian!" The Master turned away from him in anger. The Proffesor straightened up again.

"Then, you aren't interested in what I have found, Kazmer?" He asked.

"Well, maybe he's not," A voice emerged out of the shadows of the room. "But I am." A shape lurked out of the darkness to reveal the voice that spoke to be a lioness, slowly strutting up to them. The animal's back began to arch and the lioness pushed herself up off the ground until she were standing only on her hind legs. The animal began to shift more until she slowly began to morph into a human being.

Standing there now in their presence was a girl. The girl had light brown, dead straight hair that was almost a gold colour with a few braids here and there that acted as a hair elastic as it held her mass of hair up in a pony-tail. She was waring some sort of strapless, black leather dress that seemed to be mostly maid up of belts and ended at her mid-thigh. There were metal plates under the skirt that caused the dress to extend outwards around her long legs. The girl had long black gloves that ended below her shoulder and long, knee high, high heel boots. Although, the one thing that stuck out were this girls scarlet coloured eyes.

"What's up, Davian? It isn't usually like you to be beaten—_by a kid_." She emphasised the last part in a taunting way, receiving a death glare from Davian.

Kazmer shot back around to stare at The Professor with an expression filled with a mixture of anger and shock. "What is this?"

Davian looked fearful for a second, but it quickly vanished. "As I mentioned, I ran into a bit of a predicament whilst at Disney Castle. When I was just about to leave I was spotted and got into a small rumble."

"With a _kid."_ The girl said again.

"Silence, Ruby! This is none of your concern." The Master turned his deathly gaze over to Ruby, who instantly morphed in to a small black sparrow and fluttered up to perch on one of the many pedestals of the high roof. Kazmer turned back to Davian.

"What do you mean you were 'spotted'? Do you mean that you were actually stupid enough to let yourself be _seen_!" He screamed.

"Only one, Master. It was just a boy!" The Professor explained.

"A boy strong enough to inflict _that_amount of damage to you!?" He yelled again and pointed to Davian's injured leg.

"That was because he came at me from utterly out of nowhere!"

"Incompetent excuses!"

"The only incompetant one around here hasn't been seen in—"

The Professor never got to finish, because his sentence was interrupted by the ear-splitting _**BANG **_of the castle doors being opened. The Master and Professor both turned their heads to the entrance suddenly, and Ruby, still perched as a sparrow on the roof, jumped down onto a lower pedestal to get a better look at who was waiting at the entrance. At first it was far to dark to tell, but they all soon received their answer when the figure spoke.

"WHOO!! I sware this thing gets faster and faster every day!" A deep that voice belonged to a boy who seemed to be in his mid-teens boomed enthusiastically at the door as he slowly began to walk into the room. "I don't think it's supposed to be doing that. You should really get that checked." He smirked before continuing.

"I don't know if anyone's noticed, but it's like _Dawn of the Dead _out there! Geez, what with all those Zombie-thingies crawling around." The guy commented, making a crawling notion with his hands and crouching his back.

The guy then stepped into the light of the room so that everyone could get a good look at him, and by that, they only put on annoyed expressions. The guy was quite handsome with tanned skin, long brown hair that reached down to his upper back. His hair was so dark it was almost black, tied back in a loose pony-tail, and bright blue eyes that stuck out like a sore thumb. There were a few locks of his hair that just refused to stay tied back, so they just hung neatly around his face with one lock running down the centre of his face. He wore a dark, midnight blue T-shirt that hugged his masculine chest and plain dark jeans with black boots. He also seemed to be holding some sort of package.

The guy smiled smuggly and said, "How's it going, Kazzy? Ian?"

By that, Davian looked like he was about half a heartbeat away from attacking the boy, before small bird flew down into view and landed in front of the boy. Ruby then changed back into a human before placing her hands on her hips and glaring at him. "Speak of the devil." She muttered.

The boy only just kept on smiling. "Flattery will get you nowhere, sweetheart." He reached out and took ruby's hand, bringing it up to his lips.

"Ruby my dear, I have never seen a day that you have looked more beautiful." He was about to kiss her before another hand ripped his away from her. The guy looked up to meet a tall man with strange dark green hair and teal coloured eyes. His cloths were in a style similar to Ruby's, with may belts all over to make a jacket and pants for him. The only difference was that he wasn't waring gloves.

"Keep going and I'll make sure you don't." The man snarled. He was only in his late teens—almost 18—but looked much older.

The guy frowned at him. "Davis, always a pleasure." He said dryly and whipped his hand away.

There suddenly appeared another man next to Davis. It was like he appeared out of thin air and was growling down to at him also. "And just what are _you_doing here?" He said in the same tone as Davis. The man looked to be in his early 20's with dark black hair with red tips and cold brown eyes. He was waring an outfit similar, if not identical, to Davis' with the only difference being a long black great coat.

"Hey! How's life treatin' ya, Sammy!" The boy threw his hand up in the air for a hi-five, only to feel a hand on his shoulder pull him around to the other side. The people standing in front of him were clear duplicates of 'Sammy'.

"For the last time," One snarled.

"It is Samuel!" Growled the other.

"Whatever." The boy reluctantly agreed and wiggled out of Samuels' grasp, only to see them disappear into a white puff of smoke and travel back to the real Samuel. The guy raised an eyebrow.

"I almost forgot you could do that." He muttered before churping up again. "Hey, how is—"

"Stefan!" The boy suddenly stopped at the account of his name being called and twirled around to see Kazmer marching angrily up to him. Once The Master reached him he grabbed him by the shirt and roared in his race.

"Stefan! _What_ the _hell_are you DOING HERE!!" Stefan didn't answer. He stared at The Master for a few seconds before blinking twice and disappearing in a cloud of yellow and blue sparks, only to re-appear on top of the podium, his head lounging on one arm of the throne and his feet dangling over the other. He also was bouncing an apple up and down in his palm that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Stefan tilted his head to thew side and studied the apple, purposely avoiding the question. It was after watching the bright red sphere float up toward the high ceiling, gravity kick in, and it falling back down into the centre of his palm again, that he spoke.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" He asked and took a bite out of his apple. "What am I always doing here?"

"Being a nuisance." Ruby, Davis and Samuel all answered in perfect sync. Stefan's apple suddenly burst into a mass of sparks again and he turned his head to look at them and shot up into a sitting position. Stefan placed a hand over his heart and pretended to be hurt.

"You know, that really hurts." His fake sorrow only lasted a second longer until his cheesy smile re-appeared on his face and he went back to his lounging position. Stefan took his time to look around the room.

"I don't know if I've ever told you this, but I really love what you've done with the place, Kazmer." He said sarcastically. Kazmer shot Stefan a death glare that would have killed anyone within a fifty meter radius if they happened to be looking at him at the time. Stefan then began to babble on about anything that just happened to come to mind, and The Master felt his anger explode out of him as he lost all self control. The Master bolted up to the oblivious boy at lightning speed and roughly pulled him by the arm whilst pulling out a long blue blade and pressing it up against Stefan's throat.

"Do _not _make me ask you again. WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!!" Kazmer screamed with all the voice he had in him, causing everyone in the room to tremble in fear and move back a step. Even Stefan winced in shock of this sudden outburst. Stefan could only stare, still in shock, while the man's left eye changed from a cold dark sapphire, to a bright crimson red—even brighter then Ruby's.

Stefan shook his stun out of him and his usual cockiness came back. He smirked up at Kazmer.

"Yeesh, ease up on the evil eye there, old man." The Masters response was to grab Stefan by his throat and through him all the way across the room like he was nothing, so that he was now back over with the others. Stefan twisted in the air before hitting to ground so fast and so hard that a loud _**CRACK **_was heard. He slid across the tiles as he cried out in pain, and something fell to the ground beside him. They all had forgotten about the mysterious package that he was holding.

Stefan slowly, and painfully pulled himself up of the floor and winced at the impact as he pulled down the shoulder of his shirt and inspected the mixture of blue and yellow tint that his skin now was, along the unevenness of his shoulder blade. With another wince, Stefan quickly covered his shoulder with his hand and pushed first down and then up on his shoulder. When he took his hand away the tint on his skin slowly began to vanish, and within seconds his skin looked like it had never even been dislocated in the first place. Pulling his shirt back up, Stefan turned back to face The Master with a look of pure fury on his face.

"'What am I doing here'? _What am I doing here!" _Stefan roared at The Master, consequently causing Ruby, Davis and Samuel to take a step forward toward their Master protectively.

"What am I _always _doing here?" He asked, still frustrated. "I want my brother, Kazmer. I want to see him."

"And you think _we_know where he is?!" The Professor cut in.

"No," Stefan frowned. "I think _he_ knows where he is—he _always_knows where he is!" He yelled while pointing an accusing finger at The Master. The others started shouting all sorts of foul things at the boy, who just simply stood there and pretended that they weren't in the room. Stefan suddenly remembered something, momentarily taking his mind off the situation at hand. It was clear that he could switch between multiple emotions every now and then.

"I'll get back to you. I promise, Kazmer. But first I have something that might be a bit of use to you." With one last glare at Kazmer, Stefan suddenly chirped up again. "Hey, Ian!" He turned toward The professor, who growled again at the use of his annoying kick-name that this boy had given him. Stefan pulled out the yellow folder that he was holding under his arm and held it out in front of him. The cover was plain and a bit tattered up here and there, but apart from that, everything that it contained on the inside of it was still in near perfect condition. Without opening the cover, Stefan pulled out one single sheet of paper and tossed it at The Professor. The paper was only small and rectangular, Davian managed to catch the paper with ease. Davian stared at Stefan for a few moments in confusion, and allowed himself to rip his eyes away from the strange boy to inspect the paper in which he had given him. It was a photograph.

But not just any photograph. It was a photograph of a boy with Onyx black hair and green eyes. The Proffesor frowned at the picture, but Stefan spoke before he could.

"I believe that's your guy right there." He said to Davian before The Master snatched the picture out of his hands. "You know," he continued, "the one that beat you up." Stefan spoke in a mocking voice.

The Master frowned at the picture before calling Ruby over to his side. Ruby scurried up to her master obediently. "Yes, Master?"

Kazmer didn't answer, he only thrust the paper at the girl. "Do you know this kid?" He asked.

Ruby took the picture and inspected it, scanning her vivid mind for any sign of resemblance between this boy in the photograph with anyone that she had ever come across in the past. She clenched her fists tightly in frustration when she didn't find anything even remotely useful.

"No," She said. "I have never seen this person before in my life." Ruby quickly shot a glance back at the photo and added. "Although I wish I had. He's cute."

The Master frowned at the girl's distracted comment and snatched the paper back away from her.

"Is it possible that he could have hid himself from you?" Davis asked.

"No, it's not." Ruby answered, slightly offended. "I have the greatest memory in the whole of the universe. And on top of that, I have journeyed through every nook and cranny of it! So, no; it is _not _possible that he could have hid his face from _me." _

"Well maybe your so called 'excellent momory' isn't so strong after all." Samuel challenged.

Ruby growled, her body thretaning to transform back into a preditor and rip he who insulted her to shreds. "Well maybe you—"

"Dan." Ruby turned her head to Stefan, who spoke, with a puzzled expression.

Dan," He repeated. "It's his name. The guy you got into a fight with and gave you that," He pointed toward Davian's injured leg. "Dan. Or Danniel—if you want to get formal. Don't know his last name, though."

"How do you know—" Ruby was cut off once again.

"I have my sources." He said secretively.

"Anything else?" The Proffesor asked.

"Nothing except that he arrived at Disney castle with some chick about four weeks ago. Don't know her name." Stefan answered, board.

"What did—"

"Oh, no!" Stefan abruptly cut whatever The Master was about to say off, moving one finger from side to side in front at him. "My attention span is _bad_ not _horrible._" He said, taking a step closer. "Tell you what, why don't we shake it up a little this time. You don't ask questions. _I _ask the questions, and _you_ answer them."

The Master didn't say a word, so Stefan just asked his question from before again. "Where is my brother?"

"I don't know." He answered.

"You really expect me to believe that?"

"Yes I do, Stefan, because it's the truth."

"You're lying!" Stefan snarled viciously.

"If The Master says it's the truth, then—"

"QUIET, RUBY!" Stefan and The Master screamed together, causing the girl to shrink into a tiny bug and fly onto Davis's shoulder, hiding herself from them.

"Don't get involved." Davis whispered to the small trembling insect on his shoulder.

The Master and Stefan turned back to each other. "Why do you want to see him anyway?"

"It's been eleven years, Kazmer. _Eleven_. I've waited this long!"

"He won't even remember you! They made sure of it when they took you away from him! As far as he's concerned, he has never had a little brother." Davian yelled, trying desperately to get the message across.

"I can make him remember!" Stefan insisted, taking another step closer.

"_Make him remember?_ What good is _that_ going to do!?"

"I'm just trying to protect him,"

"Maybe if you'd stick you're head out of that fantasy world that you live in, you'd realise that I am too!"

"_You?!" _He scoffed. "_You're _trying to protect him? Yeah, right!"

"It's true, Stefan."

"It's _true_?" He said unbelievably. "So, tell me, is this how you protect people?!" Stefan roared at him and ripped a piece of paper out of the folder, and thrust his arm out to The Master. "IS IT?!?!"

The Master flinched and took a step back, increasing the already large space between them. He knew very well what that paper was.

"Making 'WANTED' posters of him and hanging them up all over the worlds?!" Stefan balled his fists in fury, scrunching up the piece of paper. "You have never cared for my brother's safety, Kazmer."

"Last time I cheaked," The Master said, "neither did you. What's the sudden interest?"

Stefan looked down at his fist, and the crushed paper it held in its tight grasp. The Master is wrong, he told himself. Stefan slowly brought his head back up to stare at The Master in straight in his dark, cold eyes. With a look of disgust, Stefan threw the paper of the floor and retreated to the exit without a seconds hesitation. "I'll find him by my self." He said before he vanished out the massive doors. The Master stared after him for a few moments before slowly walking over to the paper lying on the ground and picking it up. He un-crumbled the piece of parchment and examined the drawing in the centre of the poster, and the word written in large black font above his head that read 'WANTED'. The Master stared at the paper, at the picture, with great care before letting it slip out of his grasp and float back down to the floor, and walked away.

The parchment lay untouched in the centre of that dark, over sized room, waiting for someone to come and remove it. But no one did. They just left it there and walked off to their chambers. That is until a small bug buzzed down to land swiftly on top of the WANTED poster. Ruby inspected the paper, only to get a shock.

It was a picture of Sora.

* * *

Well there you have it. I apologize for any typo's or spelling errors. Spelling isn't my strong point.

Please review.

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	13. Disguised Refuge

Hello! It's me again. Take a tip from someone who knows: when visiting the beach, ALWAYS bring along a pair of shoes if you have to walk on concrete. I went to the beach last Thursday on a VERY hot day and got blisters on the balls of BOTH my feet the size of twenty-cent coins. I'm serious. Yeah...it wasn't pretty.

Here is the next chapter.

* * *

Enjoy!! o-^

"Is everything ok, your majesty?" Riku asked when King Mickey didn't continue.

"No." He answered. "There is something else that I need to tell you." King Mickey adjusted his position in the centre of his large podium and stared at the young, innocent faces (well, perhaps not _entirely_ innocent) of the three Keybladers, who's lives up until now were running quite smoothly. After furthermore hesitation, the miniature king opened his mouth and began to explain what was happening that frightened him so to Sora, Kairi and Riku.

"Before, on the Gummi ship when we were all leaving Destiny islands, I explained to you about all the happenings that have occurred: how Mellinnium still exists and the Twilight realm being re-opened?" They all nodded, remembering exactly. "Well, there is something else that I have left out—on purpose because I think that _this _should be left explained by...someone else." The King finished, leaving the trio to all stared at their king with confused expressions. King Mickey half smiled and let his gaze drift over to Mia and Dan who were now standing right next to them. A silent message travelled between the two newcomers and Mickey before he slowly descended the stage and they climbed up to it.

It was Mia who spoke first. "Ok, I think it's time that we tell you why my comrade and I are here." She began. "Dan and I arrived at this world several months ago, but not empty handed. Word was leaked on our world about some new threat to the universe, and judging by this worlds reputation, we were sent here by our superiors to seek help here."

When Mia was about to continue, Sora broke through before she could. "But why only here?" He asked, confused.

"Yeah," Said Riku. "There's plenty of other worlds that can help you. Radiant Garden, for one."

"From what Sora and Riku have told me, it would only seem natural to get assistance from there—not that Disney Castle isn't capable to help with what ever you came here for." Kairi quickly covered when she saw Donald and Goofy's faces. A small, soft voice tickled the back to Mia's mind and instantaneously turned to meet Dan's green eyes that were now flaring at her. The voice tickled her again, except this time it was stronger and louder. And it was Dan's voice.

_...Go on, answer it. You brought it up..._

Mia glared at her friend and finally stepped forward. "Well, you see...there is a perfectly good explanation for that." She paused before hastily answering, "Take it away, Danny." and moving back again. Dan sighed and took his time to look at all three of them in the eyes.

"We are just following orders." He spoke to them in a smooth and calm voice before focusing on all there of them at a time and...actually smiled!

A dizziness overcame all of them and they felt their anxiety and questions fade off into nothing. Sora felt and realised this and quickly tried to shake the drowsiness off (but he blamed it on lack of sleep the night before). Sora spoke up again,

"Yeah, but—"

"Hey, hey, hey. Like I said, just following orders." He smiled again. "We're drifting off topic here, now can we please continue?" Dan asked the last part more forcefully and he let go of some of the calmness and switched back to the way he always is. When Sora nodded in agreement tiredly he stepped back and let the smile drift a little. When he was back to standing beside Mia, she shot him a fierce look before hesitantly stepping forward.

"Yeah so anyway, about this new threat," She picked up where she left off when she finally tore her eyes off Danniel. "Some said that this was just like the other "universal threats" that we had gotten over the past years—you know, that thing with Ansem, but really wasn't Ansem, and the Organisation XIII big bang. Although others called it Armageddon." She finished.

Dan picked up where she left off. "Yeah, so the end of the universe conspiracy went on for a while, people were still thinking that everything would eventually die down. Only it didn't. Things then on just got worse—_a lot_ worse—and the leaders of our world got so desperate to fix this damn Apocalypse crisis that they began to look into legends for answers. After a long while of researching, legends eventually turned to stories, stories turned to rumours, and rumours turned into reality." Dan finished and Mia continued.

"When the legends matched up with everything that is happening perfectly was when they turned to rumours." She corrected. "Talk about the Twilight realm being unsealed was becoming too much for them, so they figured that if they were going to rely so much on legends, then why not whack another one in there."

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

"We have tones of libraries on our world," It was Dan that answered, "and all of them have books that talk about this one person that was said to be so powerful, that if the realm _was_ magically unsealed, he was the only one in the entire universe that can seal it back up again."

Mia continued. "The books called him by one tidal only: the Twilight Prince. It said that the blood that ran through his veins was of immense power. 'Twilitian blood' they called it. And that _he _was to only man for the job."

"So all we need to do is find this Twilight Prince, get him to close the door, and our problem is fixed." Sora acknowledged, happily.

"Uh, yeah...if only it were that easy," Dan answered, shattering Sora's happiness.

"What does that mean?" Riku asked.

"Well there's just one tiny flaw to those plans." He answered. "You see, because all this stuff is so secretive, so most people have no idea what the Twilight Realm or Mellinnium are."

"And when you say most—" Sora began.

"About three quarters of the universe." Mia finished for him and Sora whistled in astonishment. "Yeah, it's a lot."

"I guess it kind of makes sense," Kairi cut in. " I mean, we had no idea that all of this even existed until not long ago."

Dan snorted, a half smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "And your surprised by this?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well isn't it kinda obvious that you never would have been told about any of this? You live on a _Safe World,_ Princess." Dan broke it to her, quite rudely and earning a hard elbow in the ribs from Mia.

Sora began to think quite deeply about everything that they were telling them. He had some hope in the beginning that this wasn't going to be an incredibly difficult journey, but then that was shattered when Mia said that most of the universe wouldn't even know that such a person even exists. But, then again, how hard would it be to find a prince? They all look the same, don't they? Well, at least every prince or princess that Sora has met all gave him the same vibe: graceful, strong, wise, radiant etc. He even got that vibe whenever he looked at Kairi (but he wasn't quite sure that it was because of her being a princess of heart, or because of his feelings for her) so this Twilight Prince shouldn't be that hard to find.

"_Haven't you ever heard the saying 'don't count your chickens before they hatch'?"_ A familiar voice flashed in Sora's head, snapping him out of his thoughts and catching him off guard. He knew very well who the voice belonged to. Roxas, his nobody. But Sora found it strange because Roxas hardly ever talked to him like this in his head, he would usually wait until night when Sora was sleeping to call him to either his mural or Sora's, or he would wait until Sora was alone and then jump out of his body. Although he had only ever done that once or twice because of the fact that teleporting outside while Sora was awake made him feel weak and tired. Roxas explained it as some sort of side effect to sharing the same body.

"_What are you talking about?"_ Sora asked.

"_You always think that things are going to be so much easier then they really are" _Roxas responded.

"_I do not!"_

"_Yes, you do"_ Roxas snorted smugly. _"Look, Sora, I can see everything you see even when you don't see it"_

There was a long silence. _"What the heck are you talking about, Roxas?_

"_Look at Mia!"_

The outburst startled Sora quite a bit due to the fact that his nobody hardly ever speaks to him like that. Sure, he teases his IQ, questions the amount of empty space in his head and makes fun of his hair, but he never screams or even shouts at him. Sora's head snapped up without his permission. Sora always hated it when Roxas would do that. On very rare occasions (mainly if Sora was overly tired) Roxas would be able to control Sora's limbs for a split second or longer, judging by how tired he was, and could sometimes speak through his mouth—but it comes out as Sora's voice, not Roxas'. Sora was about to curse his nobody for doing that again (mainly because it feels odd) until he noticed what he was supposed to be looking at.

The look on Mia's face.

Her jaw was tight and her lips were help together in a hard line, her eyes narrowed the slightest and eyebrows scrunched together. Suddenly her blue eyes flickered to Sora and their gazes were locked for the longest second in his entire life. Sora didn't know what it was but something inside of his head knocked everything into place, in he was sure it _wasn't_ Roxas. Sora's eyes widened and he drew in a breath before speaking.

"There's more." Everybody in the room turned to face him, confusion clear on their faces. "A lot more. Isn't there?"

"Yes," Mia and Dan answered together. "A lot more." Mia began explaining again. "It is a very, very, very, VERY long story and I honestly cannot be bothered to explain—that and we don't have time—so I'll just get straight to the point. Because this has been kept in such secrecy all this time, like we said before, this will most certainly _not_ be an easy mission. Because, and I apologise for being to blunt, but in order to keep such an identity in the shadows, the Twilight Prince won't even know he's the Twilight Prince."

There was a long pause as silence filled the large room. "WHAT?!?!" That is, until Sora, Riku and Kairi broke it.

Mia and Dan lifted their palms up in front of them quickly in kind of a surrender gesture. "Hey now," Dan tried to reason, "Before you go and bite our heads off, you should know that we actually do have something to make our lives and yours a whole lot easier."

The trio frowned when they both reached into their pockets and pulled out two red gemstones tied to a bronze chain. When held up to the light it would shimmer and change its colour slightly. The two held the stones up in front of them. "Tracking devises." Dan explained. "In various worlds there are these plants called 'Menka flowers'. They are the only plants in existence that have light and darkness radiating through them. What we need to do is collect ten flowers of light and ten of darkness so that Dan and I can build something that will find this prince."

"How do they work?" Kairi asked.

"When turned on they activate and change colour depending on how close of far a target is. These ones have been mixed with both light and darkness so they should be able to tell us what we need to know once we're down in the worlds."

"Wait, 'should'?" Riku asked.

"Well..." Dan answered sheepishly, "it's kind of never been tested before..."

"WHAAK!!" Was heard from behind and Donald jumped up to the front with Goofy behind. "Whadaya mean 'never been tested'?!"

"Well we don't have Menka flowers in our world and they are extremely hard to find!" Dan yelled.

"Oh, and one more thing!" Mia chimed in, stepping forward before a fight could break loose. "Because of Sora's new powers, there is is slight chance that the stones could...maybe...sorta...kinda...will activate around Sora."

"Oh, great!" Sora yelled. "Now I'm a danger to the mission!" He buried his face in his hands and Kairi moved closer to him and patted him on the back gently.

"What is it with you and jumping to the worst case scenario?!" Mia asked, unbelievably. "There is a slight chance that that wont happen but even if it does we would be able to tell depending of the colour it changes into to."

Sora lifted his head back up as Kairi asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well," Dan continued, "The colour it is now" —he pointed to the stone— "which is red, means that the target is no where is sight—that, and the fact that they are turned off. Blue means a smaller power source; aka. you, Sora. And a bright green means the target is close by."

"Oh. Ok." Sora chimed, happy again. Still standing on the stage, Mia threw the stone she was holding to Sora and Dan threw his to Riku, who both caught it with ease. Unlike Riku, who immediately sensed that the devises where very fragile and pocketed it right away, Sora simply stared at the bright scarlet stone in his palm, rolling it around with him fingers.

"So how do you turn this thing on?" Sora asked as he started pushing random places of the stone. When that didn't work Sora frowned and started pounding it in random places and brought it up to his ear to see if he could head something. By this Dan's eyes widened and he jumped off the stage and ran up to Sora, snatching the gemstone off of him in the proses.

"Heyheyheyheyhey!" He yelled. "Stop that! Do you know how fragile these are?!"

"Sorry." Sora quickly muttered.

"You turn them on like this," Dan flipped the little ball around and pushed down on a small button where the chain connects with the stone. The devise beeped once and lit up a slightly brighter colour to when it was turned off. Mia jumped off the stage as Danniel turned it off again and handed it back to Sora.

"There, still red. That's a good sign." She smiled at him.

"It means that they might not be activating around you after all, Sora." The high vocal voice of the king chimed in from nowhere, and up until now they all had forgotten that he was even in the room. Mickey smiled and clapped his hands together. "Well, time's runnin' short now and you fellas should be getting ready for departure."

Mickey turned to Donald and Goofy. "I need you two to go and get the supplies and bring them to the loading dock. Once there tell the guys to start loading them on board."

"Yes sir, your majesty!" They both replied in unison before bolting out of the room and racing down the hall and near light speed. Mickey then turned to Mia and Dan. "Could you two please go to the Gummi hanger and check if everything is ready?"

"Of course," They both departed from the room. King Mickey then turned to the last remaining three.

"Right, you three have free rain of the castle until we all meet in the Gummi hanger in twenty minutes." The three thanked him excitedly (especially Sora who was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet) and half ran out the door.

* * *

"What the hell was that?!"

She kept her voice in a soft, but harsh, whisper in the chance that someone might hear them as he stared back at her with a look that read "I have no idea what you are talking about". Here was the situation: Mia had Dan backed up against a wall in a deserted hallway with both arms on either side of his body so that there was no chance of escape. When they were making their way down to the Gummi hanger like the King asked them to do, out of nowhere Mia abruptly stopped where she stood, grabbed Dan's shoulders and pushed him into the next hallway. There she decided to lecture him on something that he had no idea about. Or so he said.

"Don't give me that!" She spat at him. "You know exactly what I am talking about." Mia rose up on her toes and moved closer to him until the point where they were almost nose to nose and shot him a death glare, daggers, knifes, swords, chainsaws and about fifty million other weapons at him.

"You know that it's against the rules to use forbidden powers, Danniel!" She all but screamed at him. Dan's eyes widened and he stepped closer to her and pushed her away from him,but it didn't really make her go very far before she stomped back up to him.

"I did no such thing!" He yelled back. "You have no proof of that!"

"Their eyes glazed over when you smiled at them, Dan!"

Danniel simply stared at her blankly. "Ok...you maybe you do have proof." Mia glared at him again and punched his right arm hard.

"OW!" He cried and clutched his arm in pain. "Jeez you hit hard!" Mia huffed and spun so that her back was to him, her long red hair almost hitting him in the face, and crossed her arms over her chest. Dan stopped rubbing his arm and glared at her. "Why is it such a big deal to you anyway?"

"Because." Was her reply.

"Because?"

"Just because."

"That isn't an answer, Mia." She spun back around, this time actually whipping him with her hair. "You used compulsion on Sora, Riku and Kairi—and it was when you didn't even need to!"

"I was just easier then—hey wait! Why are you lecturing me on this anyway? You didn't seem to mind when we were getting the hell out of there."

"That was then this is now." She responded before turning her back to him again. Dan scratched his face where her hair hit him and muttered, "What are you a windmill?" before putting his hands on her shoulders.

"Ok, fine. I'm sorry. Can we just forget about this?" He asked.

"No. I can't forget." Mia replied stubbornly.

Dan sighed and wrapped his arms around her. "Fine. I guess I can just make you forget,"

Mia's eyes widened and she pushed out of his embrace, spinning around with her jaw just about to hit the ground. "Use compulsion on _me_ and you're breaking about one hundred laws there, Dan!" Mia informed him with a stern look. Danniel flung his arms up in the air in a sort of surrender pose. "I'm kidding!"

"Whatever. Just count yourself lucky that I'm the only one who noticed."

Dan ignored that and stared at her unbelievably, "Hang on; you are actually lecturing me on using _my_ forbidden powers?"

Mia nodded at him as if to say "Duh". Dan crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at her. "And what about you, miss goodie-goodie?"

"Excuse me?" Mia asked.

"You think that I haven't noticed, don't you?"

"Noticed _what?!_"

"You _read my mind_ in there, Mia!" He hissed. "Just like you have been doing to everyone ever since we "landed" in this place!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Mia shot at him, once again spinning so that he couldn't see her face. In truth she knew _exactly_ what he was talking about.

Dan snorted, "Yeah, right."

"I really—"

"Don't you remember what he said abut the mind reading thing?" Dan cut her off.

"Of course I do!"

"That it was an invasion of privacy?" He pushed on.

"Yes, but I only have on half mo—" Mia widened her eyes and clamped both hands over her mouth, knowing she was caught out and turned back around to face Dan who was staring back at her with a smug expression that read "You really think you can hide anything from me?". Mia sighed and dropped her head to the floor, suddenly becoming very interested in the plush carpet and tiled floor.

"Look," Mia began, looking at him in the eyes again and knowing that he was right, there is not one chance in the universe that she can hide anything from him; she never could and she never will. "I won't tell about you using your power if you won't tell about me using mine." She held her hand out in front of her. "Deal?"

"Is this another one of your I'll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine things?" Dan asked, still smirking at her.

"Yes. Now do we have a deal or not?" She shook her out stretched hand impatiently. Dan finally answered her with a simple "fine" and joined his hand with hers.

"And our little bet's still on, isn't it?" Dan asked, his and her hand still joined.

"I wouldn't necessarily call it "little" but yes. Yes it is." Mia answered.

"Good. Because I'll tell you now; I expect to win." Dan smiled wickedly at Mia, who responded with a, "We'll see about that" before the two took off again to the Gummi hanger.

* * *

After a good half an hour of walking the Castle, Sora, Kairi and Riku reached the Gummi hanger a bit later then they should have. The sound of laughter filled the entrance of the large room as the three friends entered with happy and flushed faces. Riku and Kairi were bent over laughing uncontrollably while Sora made a series of crazy, silly, funny, weird faces. Suddenly the ear-piercing sound of a loud Mega-phone that needed to be turned down a couple volumes filled up the large room, causing the three to stop abruptly and cover their ears.

"WHAAAK!!! HURRY UP YOU THREE!!! YOU ARE AS SLOW AS GOOFY TRYING TO FIND THE BRAKES ON A GUMMI SHIP!!!!!"

The sound on Donald's infuriated bellowing was followed by a dry "Let it go!" in the distance behind the Mega-phone. "IF YOU WOULD JUST LISTEN TO THE INSTRUCTER ONCE IN A WHILE I WOULDN'T NEED TO GO ON AND ON AND ON AND ON AND ON—" Donald, not realising that he was still screaming into the Mega-phone, had his screaming cut short when the sound on someone ripping the device away from him filled the room.

"DONALD!" The sound of Mia's voice boomed into the speaker. "IF YOU WANNA GO ALL CRAZY ATLEAST TURN THE MEGA-PHONE _OFF _FIRST!!" Mia went silent when she realised that now _she _was screaming her lungs out over the loud and deafening devise. The red-head turned to the front of the room to see Sora, Riku and Kairi all with their teeth clenched, faces all screwed up and hands clamped over their ears.

She put her hand behind her head and called through the Mega-phone sheepishly, "OOPS! SORRY!" before the click on the phone turning off was heard. The three sighed and blinked a few times before rubbing their fingers in their ears in order to bring their hearing back. Once Kairi's ears popped she exhaled and turned to Riku and Sora.

"I think we better get over there before Donald comes up with another reason to deafen us," She laughed and Riku nodded in agreement. But Sora, still beating his skull with his palm squinted up to her, blinked and shouted, "WHAT?!"

Kairi just shook her head and pulled him toward the others by his sleeve. Riku laughed at the two before taking off after them. The three reached the others to find Mia wagging her finger at Donald and seemed to be lecturing him about something. Once the girl saw them she turned away from their feathery friend and beamed at Sora, Riku and Kairi.

"Hiya!" She greeted.

Kairi and Riku returned her greeting but Sora only shouted, "WHAT?!"

"I said hello!" Mia repeated loudly.

"WHAT'S YELLOW?!" Sora shouted obliviously.

"That's not what I said!"

"OH, THREE SUGARS, THANKS!" Sora beamed at her before Riku punched him on the arm. "You are screaming!" He informed his spiky-haired friend.

"I AM?! OH SORRY, THAT MEGA-PHONE MUST HAVE REALLY STUFFED UP MY HEARING!" Riku inched away from Sora wincing at every word that he said. Mia frowned and walked up to Sora and surprised everyone by slapping him upside the head, causing him to jolt and cry out "OW!" and rubbed his head where she hit him.

"Better?" Mia asked once she stepped back.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Thanks." Sora's voice was not back to normal.

"Oh good, you're here!" They all turned their attention to King Mickey who appeared at the top of the door to a large red, blue and green coloured Gummi ship.

"Sorry we're late, your majesty. We kinda got a little lost." Kairi explained.

"No matter," Mickey politely brushed it off and descended the long and wide ramp of the Gummi ship before coming to stand over with Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mia, Donald and Goofy. Mickey shot the four teens a bright smile and turned to Donald and Goofy.

"Everything is all set, I take it?" The Wizard and the Knight both nodded eagerly and beamed at their king.

"All set for take off!" They chimed in perfect sync.

"_Every thing's good to go down here, too!_" Sora, Riku and Kairi all turned their heads when a voice came from the air. When they failed to locate a body to belong to the voice, Sora turned to his former comrades and asked, "You guys heard that too, right? I'm not still hearing things from the Mega-phone thing?"

Donald and Goofy chuckled but didn't answer. They heard the voice again. "_Down here!_"

Sora finally recognised the voice two seconds before Dan came flying out from under the Gummi Ship, lying on his back on top of some sort of silver metal board that hovered in the air. His green eyes shone through this onyx bangs as they were flopped in his eyes and hiding most of his face, his hands were covered in grease while he clutched a handful of wrenches and other weirdly shaped tools that Sora had never seen before and couldn't put an name to and he had his jacket tied around his waist, leaving Riku to frown again at his Organisation XIII T-shirt. Dan sat up on the magical flying board and went to brush his hair out of his eyes before Mia came up and slapped his hand away, telling him not to get even more greasy then he already is and pushed his hair away herself, exposing black splotches around his cheeks, chin and forehead. She then handed him a clean towel—not before laughing at the state he was in—which he used to wipe away all the black splotches on his skin.

Kairi laughed at the two when Dan threw the now grease covered towel at Mia's head, which she whacked away before any girt got on her. "Do we ask what you were doing down there?" Kairi said.

Dan stepped off the board and untied his jacket from his waist. "Well, the Gummi was having a little trouble so I just went down there like a good mechanic and fixed it up a little."

"Wait a minute," Sora cut in. "I thought you said yesterday that you were a technician?"

"Same thing, different name." Dan waved a hand before slipping his black leather jacket back over his shoulders. Sora turned to Riku,

"It's not the same thing...isn't it?" He asked clueless. Riku just shrugged.

Mia laughed. "Don't worry, he'll come in handy once were in the stars."

"Wait, you're" —Riku pointed to Dan and Mia— "coming with us?"

"I'm going to choose not to take offence to that tone." Dan mumbled. "Yes. Yes we are."

"Emilia and Danniel will be there to help you guys out with this particular journey since they know most about the Menka flowers and those crystals and what not." Mickey explained.

"Wait, you're not coming with us?" Sora asked, sensing where this was going.

Mickey sighed and gave Sora a sad smile. "I'm afraid not. There is just far too much things I need to take care of around here—but if you fellas get into any sort of trouble, remember that I'm only a call away on the video phone!" Mickey smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

Suddenly, charging out of the Gummi Ship came one of the worker brooms. The broom slid to a stop right beside King Mickey and bent down to whisper something in his ear. After a few seconds Mickey clapped his hands together and announced, "The brooms say that everything is ready for take of, so Donald if you will..."

The wizard didn't even let his finish before he reached into his pocket and yanked out a blue whistle with a broom key chain dangling from it. "Already one step ahead of you!" Donald beamed before he brought the whistle to his bill and blew, filling the room with a shrill call seconds before a dozen brooms burst through the doors and sprinted up to the teens. Two brooms approached each teen and graciously took their luggage from them and ran into the ship. The two brooms who came to take Kairi's luggage both turned to each other sheepishly before bending over and bowing at the young princess, who smiled in return and watched the two inanimate workers gallop inside where they would take her belongings to where she would be sleeping for the rest of who-knew-how-long.

"How come _you_ always get to do it?" Goofy whined as four brooms ran to them and took their bags.

"Because _I_ can actually be trusted with it." Donald shot back.

Sora watched in amazement as more and more brooms came hurtling through the doors and running in and out of the Gummi ship. "H...how many brooms do you actually have in this place?" He whispered through the chaos.

"Who knows." Donald answered with a shrug, somehow hearing Sora.

"We find more and more of them every week—they just show up in places you would never expect!" Goofy added with his famous "Ah'yuk!"

Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mia and Dan all watched as one of the brooms that looked like it was in charge of all the others simply stood and the entrance and leaning on the rail as it spoke (chatted up) to one of the other brooms, who brought her "hands" up to her "mouth" and laughed at something the male broom said.

"This is getting weird." Mia commented. Sora and Riku nodded in agreement. Just then the two brooms that were carrying Sora's bag sprinted up to him in the wobbly sprint that they do and slid to a stop in front of him.

"Uh...yes?" Sora asked after a few moments of the brooms just standing there. The brooms shared a glance before the first one held its "hand" out to Sora and clicked its "fingers" at him. "Oh, um, ok," Sora mumbled, getting what they wanted before reaching into his pocket and pulling out five munny.

"Here you go, you can split it." Sora said and slid the money into the broom's hand. The broom just stared at it before both of them sighed and slumped over.

Sora raised his arms in surrender. "Oh, oh ok, no need to get upset. Here, take ten." Sora handed them the money and watched as the two workers brooms straightened up and bowed to Sora before making a mad dash out of the room. Mickey then said something to Donald who nodded and blew on the whistle again. At the sound of the high pitched call, the worker brooms stopped where they were and abruptly turned to exit the hanger. Seconds later the room was back to its quiet self.

"That never gets old." Dan muttered, the smallest hint of a smile playing at the corners of his lips.

Riku turned to him, "And you see stuff like that a lot, do you?"

Dan's only response was to drop his half smile and clamp his lips together in a hard line, like he's said something he shouldn't have.

"Hmm," Donald broke through, staring at Sora with a feathery finger tapping his chin. "That's funny, they only ever charge two munny."

Sora's mouth hit the floor when he replayed the amount of money he tipped the brooms. Riku laughed beside him, "Heh heh heh, you got ripped off by a couple brooms." Sora glared at him.

"They probably knew about how much of a softy Sora is," Kairi nudged his playfully in the ribs.

"I am not!"

Everyone then laughed except for Sora, who merely pouted. Just then the sound of someone running into the room shook them all out of their hysterical fit and they all turned to see Queen Minnie running up to the group.

"Oh deer," She panted once she reached them. "I thought I was going to be too late to see you all off!"

"Well, you made it by that" —Sora pinched two fingers together, keeping the smallest amount of space between them— "much, your majesty." Sora laughed just before Donald kicked him in the shin. Sora yelped at the sudden pain and looked down to see Donald glaring at him with an expression that read "Do I need to remind you _again_ the proper way to greet a queen?!". Sora put both hands behind his head and grinned sheepishly, although above all, it was far better then the "Hiya" he used the fist time they met—at least he used formalities.

Minnie simply waved the boy and his _Talking Without Thinking_ remarks. Minnie went and stood next to her husband and took his hand. "All of us here at Disney Castle wish you all the best of luck and ask you to be safe."

"Thank you, your majesty." Donald and Goofy nodded.

Minnie smiled and let go of Mickey's hand to walk over to Riku, "Now remember, Riku, everyone has light inside of them—never forget that. Promise me that you will never loose sight of what really matters."

"I won't, your majesty." Riku returned Minnie's smile and nodded before she moved on to Kairi.

"Kairi, remember that a princesses heart is the strongest of them all, and sometimes things get hard so it will be up to you to stay strong and pure and help the one you love when he needs you."

"Wait, what?" Kairi stammered.

Minnie's eyes went wide and her cheeks turned pink when she realised her mistake. "Ones—_ones_ you love when _they_ need you!"

Before Kairi could say another word Minnie had already scrambled off to Sora to give him her piece of advice. Kairi replayed Queen Minnie's first words in her head "_...help the one you love when he needs you"_ and when her eyes came to a stop on Sora she felt a hot blush creep its way onto her cheeks. Noticing this Kairi quickly tore her eyes away before anyone could notice. _...Exactly how much does the queen know? Is it really that obvious...?_

"Hello, Sora." She greeted and Sora nodded in return. "This journey will be very tough—for you most of all."

"Because of the powers," Sora guessed and felt the slightest pin prick of his heart at the mention of them.

"Yes, that and the fact that through all the hard times you must never forget what really matters and who your friends are—"

"Why would I do that?" Sora cut her off, speaking harder and louder then he intended to. Donald sent him another glare.

"No, no—I'm sorry, dear, that's not what I meant to say at all. Um I meant to say, don't give up. Someday soon you will be able to use this new strength to its full potential, just like the others before you have." Minnie finished and smiled warmly up at Sora. Sora simply took a deep breath and smiled back at his queen, half of him wondering what was up with all this advice she was giving them, half happy that she actually cares.

Before anyone could utter another word Dan stepped into view from where king Mickey was talking to him and Mia. "Well, as much as I hate goodbyes," He said sarcastically, "We're kind of running very thin on time and we need to be in Radiant Garden before they start filling out a _Missing Persons_ report."

Riku eyed the boy weirdly and leaned over to whisper to Mia, "Has he always been this impatient?"

"You have no idea.," was her answer.

"I guess he's right." Mickey said. "Well, goodbye and good luck. You five are free to board the Gummi ship and Donald, Goofy, could I just have a word with you?"

The two oversized animals nodded as Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mia and Dan waved for the last time and entered the Ship.

* * *

"Yes, your majesty?"

"I just needed to make sure that you two hadn't forgotten about what you're supposed to be looking out for while your travelling through the worlds."

Donald and Goofy kept the blank and clueless looks on their faced one second to long, proving to Mickey that they indeed _had_ forgotten, causing him to sigh and shake his head. Suddenly both wizard and knight felt a light bulb go off inside of their heads and both animals straightened up with their eyes wide.

"Oh yeah!" They both harmonised.

Mickey wasn't convinced, "You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?"

"No." Goofy answered dumbly making his feathery companion send him a death glare. "Goofy!"

Mickey paid no attention to his two friends, only shook his head again and reached into one of his pockets of his royal grabs. Seconds later he straightened up and retrieved a small rectangular piece of parchment and held it out for Donald and Goofy to take.

"Remember what Merlin and Yen Sid said?" Mickey asked as the two examined the paper. "That we need _her"_ —he pointed at the paper— "along in this particular quest." Donald and Goofy looked back down to the paper once again. The paper was in fact a photograph and on it was a beautiful smiling girl staring back at them in black and white. Donald and Goofy tore their eyes away and nodded when they actually _did _remember.

"Remember to keep a hawks eyes out when you're travelling because she doesn't actually _live _anywhere, but moves from place to place. The longest she has ever stayed in one world was two months in Port Royal."

"Of course, your majesty!" Goofy responded.

"We will be sure to look hard." Donald added.

"Oh! But not _too_ hard, because I've known you two long enough to know that you sometimes get ahead of yourselves and miss what's right there." Donald and Goofy were about to object but then realised that it was true. "Unfortunately this is the only picture we have of her and it was taken a few years back, so she may look somewhat different now then she did then."

"Yes, your majesty." They harmonised again.

"You remember her name, don't you?"

"Yup!"

"Great. I guess I'll be seeing you when I'll be seeing you."

* * *

"HOLEY PURPLE CHOCOBOS!!" As soon as the words left his mouth, Sora inwardly cursed himself that he really needed to stop spending so much time talking to Roxas: the Nobody was starting to rub off of him—or maybe it was Roxas who said it, either way, Sora was too stunned to ponder another moment on it. Kairi and Riku would have been staring at their chestnut haired friend and asking him about the amount of sugar he put in his cereal this morning if they weren't staring with their eyes wide and mouths hanging open also. For one, the Gummi was _huge_! Far bigger then it looked from the outside and everything about it just gave off that "modern" feeling. The sleek metal walls, the marble floors, the furniture which included leather couches, strong solid oak tables, a large plush carpet in the centre and extra seats attached to the walls that actually had seatbelts! Even though the door led them into the main room or once—not the cockpit.

A whistle from behind them snapped Sora, Kairi and Riku out of their trance when Mia and Dan entered the room. "Cool," He said before walking further into the room. Dan walked straight up to the far wall and knocked on it twice. Before anyone could ask what he was doing he turned back around and said. "Really seems real."

"Well, isn't it?" Sora asked tilting his head in confusion.

"You tell me, Spikes."

Sora took another look around the room before moving over to the window. The glass was perfectly clear and solid and looked almost bullet proof. _...More like canon proof..._ Sora thought. Without thinking Sora lifted his hand and reached out to tap the glass. As soon as his skin made contact with the crystal he felt the slightest spark, both hot and somehow cold at the same time, and his vision blurred. Sora quickly snapped his hand away and turned back around only to be greeted by Dan, who was smirking at him. Dan lifted his arm up in the air and gestured to the oversized room. "You tell me." He repeated before pointing to the door.

Sora frowned again and made a wild dash for the exit. Before Kairi or Riku could ask him what was wrong Sora was already out the door, down the ramp and staring with wide eyes and an open mouth at the Gummi ship. The ship was actually _smaller_ on the outside! Just then Kairi and Riku came down the ramp and were staring at Sora, whose only response was to point at the ship. The two's eyes went wide when they soon realised too. Mia and Dan appeared at the door.

"New technology," Mia mused. "Don'cha just love it?"

"How..." They all began at the same time as Donald and Goofy came strolling back from their talk with the king.

"This way we can have more space on the inside and be less detectable whilst travelling through space." Donald said, one finger toward the ceiling.

"Yeah, but _how_?"

"We don't build them so how in the world would we know?" Donald answered Sora.

"But I hear it wasn't easy." Goofy added.

Soon after the king came back to them and told them that everything was ready for take off. The group were ushered into the Gummi, Donald walked over to a small silver panel by the wall with one big red lever and one blue button. Donald let his fingers brush over the panel before it moved to the lever, left it straight after and punched the blue button with caused a mechanical hiss circled the room as the doors rose up before shutting firmly in place. Sora stared at the panel with excitement,

"Ooh, what does that big one do?" He asked, eyes twinkling like a child on Christmas morning.

"What this?" Donald asked before pulling down the lever. Moments later a soft _click_ was heard and the room became slightly lighter. Donald pointed up. "Turns on the light."

Sora and Riku watched as Donald walked away toward the front of the room where everyone else were standing for a moment before looking back at the roof. "I'm not even gonna ask." Riku said to himself before pulling the lever again to turn the light back off, since it was day and they didn't really need it and all. Sora and Riku walked over to the rest and Sora began looking around the room and to where it led into a hall way.

"So uh, where is the cockpit?" Mia looked around, trying at answer Sora's question, but realised she couldn't.

"Down?" She guessed.

* * *

After what felt like half an hour of searching, the group finally managed to find a room in the very bottom of the Gummi where the steering wheel, driver's seat, two passengers seats, buttons on the walls infested with wires and levers and many pipes and fluorescent lights running along the celling and one big open window at the front. The group came practically crawling through the door, huffing and puffing from all those flights of stairs they had to climb down. Everyone was about to cheer in victory when they noticed two double sliding doors on the far wall and groaned in frustration when they read the word that was written above it.

"There's an ELEVATOR?!?!" Sora quickly crossed the distance of the room, his shoes creating a funny metal kind of sound with each step he took, and slid open the doors to reveal a slick and shiny golden coloured elevator doors. Sora pushed the button which ready 'OPEN' and listened for the soft _ding _as the doors slid open before moving inside to inspect the panel of buttons in descending order:

_*ROOF_

_*LV IV_

_*LV III_

_*LOBBY_

_*BDRMS_

_*LV II_

_*LV I_

_*CKPT_

Sora face palmed himself. "Aw man!"

Sora was then overthrown by a loud shouting from his best friend telling him that he could take a tour of the place later before he abandoned the elevator that hid just so well from the all, making sure to close the metallic doors (both of them) before running back over to where his fellow travel companions for the rest of God only know how long and jumped right into the drivers seat without a second thought. It was safe to say that Donald and Goofy nearly had a heart attack.

Dan spoke up before the two semi-animal-looking-people-mammals could start screaming at the top of their lungs, "Uh, are you sure you know how to drive this thing?"

"Of course I do!" Sora shot at him, voice full of a little too much defence. "After all, I was the one who drove Donald, Goofy and I all the way across the universe and back for two whole years straight!"

The brunette raised his palms in the air. "Trust me, I know. But this new technology is a bit more complex then what you guys are used to,"

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm just saying that you might not know the correct shifts and controls, and what every button does and which ones you should press and which ones to stay away from and not to mention..." Dan went on like that for as long as Sora could handle before he finally cut the boy off.

"And do _you_ know all that?"

Kairi, Mia, Donald, Goofy and Riku all stood back and watched as a harmful lecture turned into a full blown argument. "Why can't I drive?!"

"Because you've just proven to me that you don't know squat about Gummi ships!" This was when Dan's voice transformed back into it's usual hardness.

"Excuse me? What the heck is that supposed to mean?!"

"What?! Why would you even ask that?! I just told you!"

Cue popcorn and soda cups.

"Mia's right, you don't make any sense!"

"Don't drag me into this!"

"Me?! Your the one asking stupid questions! And on top of that you want to go on a drive an incredibly complex Gummi ship when you don't even know how to drive a simple _car_!"

"Well if Riku would have let drive that hovercraft that he found a year ago then I would know how to drive!"

"Hey! I had just gotten my life back and I actually wanted to keep it!"

"Yeah! Thank you, Riku! From the stories I've heard about you you're just an accident waiting to happen!"

Sora glared at Dan, "Yeah, well _you_—"

"Enough!" Riku's outburst caused the two to put a halt to their consistent bellowing, even Dan pressed his lips together firmly. "Will you just figure it out?"

Goofy stepped forward. "I...I can drive."

"NO!" Everybody in the room turned toward the oversized dog, who staggered backward in surprise. Goofy pouted and slumped forward while muttering something incomprehensible under his breath. Dan sighed in defeat and rolled his eyes.

"Fine, we'll just put it in autopilot—"

"NOO!!" Everyone in the room but Mia raised their arms up in the air, motioning for Dan to stop when his finger was inches away from the button, their eyes wide and fearful. The last thing they wanted was a replay of their last Gummi disaster. Dan drew his hand away like he had been electrocuted. Sora took a deep breath and rolled his eyes. Eager to prove himself, the brunette sat back in his seat and rolled it further toward the steering wheel, eyeing many of the controls before finally settling with one.

"I can do it... How do you even start this thing...?" Sora muttered the last part to himself before moving over to the button he thought would start up the engine.

"No, Sora, not that one!" Dan yelled so fast that it came out as one word.

But it was too late. Sora leaned forward and pushed one of the blue buttons scattered around the wheel, but instead of the engine starting, a loud rumble echoed through the ship just as the ground began to shake and open up. Everyone was knocked back as the large opening in the ground that was used when the Gummi ships needed to exit the hanger opened up to its full extent. Their was a brief moment of gravity being taken away before a sense of witlessness filled them all. The Gummi ship then dropped through the dark hole in the bottom of Disney Castle as the group were propelling at an alarming rate into the vast unknown. A light burst through the window and the group found themselves finally out of the tunnel and in space.

Quickly, Dan pushed himself off of the ground and lunged at the control panel. Without stopping to think his fist slammed into one of the dials and over to a small lever sticking out next to the wheel. Everyone was pushed along the floor suddenly when the ship jolted and they didn't even realise that they were upside down until the Gummi spun around vertically, making them the right way up again. The Gummi ship hovered there in space as the group fought to catch their breaths. Sora, still sitting in the drivers d=seat, turned his head to the side to see Dan kneeling by the chair, holding on to the rail for support as he gave Sora what looked like something in between a glare and an "I told you so" look.

Sora cleared his throat and shakily began to rise from the chair. "Um, yeah...maybe, uh, _you_ should—" He coughed "—drive."

Dan shook his head and pulled him self up too his feet before slumping down on the drivers seat. He opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and shut his mouth again. A beeping could then be heard and Dan turned toward a small video phone attached into the system; the words 'INCOMING CALL' written across the screen.

"_What happened?_" King Mickey's face appeared as soon as Dan pressed the '_answer_' button. "_The last thing I saw was you guys falling through the floor,_"

"Um, it's ok, your majesty. Just a little..._complication_." Dan's eyes flickered to Sora for the shortest second.

"_Well, as long as you all are a-ok, I don't see the need to delay you any longer—uh, everyone _is_ ok, aren't they?_"

Dan looked behind him where everyone was lying in a bundled heap on the floor before tuning back to the monitor (making sure to stop and shoot Sora another glare). "Nobody's dead yet,"

"_Ok then have a safe journey to Radiant Garden!_"

"Thank you, sir." Mickey waved a final goodbye into the screen before it went blank.

* * *

After hours of trying to convince Sora, Riku and Kairi that the Gummi ship _wasn't_ out to get them, the three best friends finally agreed to letting Dan put the ship on auto pilot. It basically took one whole hour just to visit every room on the ship, that counting the bedrooms, bathrooms and everything in between. This Gummi had one gigantic laundry room, enough washing machines and driers for all of them, three Japanese type bath rooms: one male, one female, and one unisex (although no one was game enough to try _that_ one out), an Olympic sized swimming pool, half of it separated by ropes used for laps, a kitchen fully stocked and equipped with the latest functions and appliances, ten bedrooms: all the size of one that would belong to a king or queen with king sized beds, en-suits and walk in closets (they walked in to find that all of their belongings were already where they needed to be) and finally one large library stacked with rows and rows of books on shelves of great hight and a cinema room (things tend to get a little dull when you are travelling to worlds). The one thing that they were confused about was the _ROOF _button clearly marked in the elevator. They didn't know how you could go up their without being sucked into oblivion, but Donald explained that their was some sort of forcefield, a dome like shield, that ran around the top of the ship, supplying enough oxygen to last forever (if they ever ran low the oxygen levels would show on the screen in the cockpit and would automatically restock whenever they docked on a world). It was also the only part of the Gummi that was the real size, as it appeared on the outside.

Sora was lounging on one of the green sofas in the lobby, staring with wide eyes and an open mouth at everything that shouldn't be able to fit in there. So far he was the only one in the room, everyone else had gone off to ogle all the other amazing contraptions in the ship.

"You planning on starting a fruit fly circus, or something? Close you mouth." Sora's hand shot up to his lips when he realised that it was still open wide. He quickly shut them and turned his head to the side to see Riku staring down at him with an amused expression on his face.

"Sorry," Sora muttered as his friend came to sit down next to him. "It's just, everything just so...so..."

"Big?" Riku offered.

"Yes!" Sora shot up from the couch. "And it's just not supposed to..."

"Fit?"

"Yes! A-a-a-a-and I'm just..."

"An idiot?"

"Yes—hey, wait!" The brunette spun on his heel and glared at his friend.

Riku laughed, "Sorry, I saw the opportunity and I took it,"

Sora ignored him. "I was going to say, I'm just trying to wrap my head around the whole thing." Riku stood up too.

"You're not the only one," He murmured just as Sora asked him what he meant. "Well, I don't know about you but to me it seems like only yesterday that I was working for the Organisation, and you were going through hell trying to find me and Kairi." Riku paused to walk over to the large open window at the front of the room, stopping to watch all the stars they pass go by before continuing. "And know the King, Queen, Donald and Goofy, they're all talking to me and looking at me as if none of that ever happened—as if I never even betrayed my two best friends or anything that ever mattered." Riku suddenly felt the urge to run his fist through the window, but thought better of it since no one on this ship probably wanted to die.

Sora tiled his head to the side in thought, confused about Riku's sudden change of behaviour and walked over next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Aw, man. I wasn't in hell." Riku looked at Sora. "I was only _half_ way there."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Riku asked in what he hoped was a dry tone, but Sora picked up on the humour in his voice. The boy grinned and placed both hands behind his head, "I was hoping so, otherwise there go my dreams of being a comedian: down the drain."

Riku frowned. "You have never wanted to be a comedian, Sora."

"You're right—but it could happen!"

"Yeah, just like you though that Kairi could get through one lesson on how to use her Keyblade without inuring me." The darkness user grumbled.

"Not _my_ fault your big head kept getting in the way." The two friends laughed together until they heard the sound of heavy feet slapping the ground. Sora and Riku both turned around to see two very wet Donald and Goofy's enter the room. Goofy was clad in a full body Olympic style wet suit with yellow floats around his arms and flippers on his feet, causing him to take very big steps in order to stop from falling flat on his face. Donald was wearing blue swimming trunks with green floats and a white towel wrapped around his head for reasons unknown. The two came flapping into the room happily and dripping all over the tiled floors and carpets.

"Uh...Donald, Goofy," Sora began, "what are you doing?" He wasn't even quite sure he wanted to know.

Goofy flopped forward. "Donald and I just checked out the pool! It's great! Not too cold and not too warm!"

"We thought as the only grown ups here—" Donald cleared his throat "—it was our obligation to see if it was, uh, you know, safe enough for you little tykes."

Sora turned his head down and ran a hand in his hair and murmured to Riku through still lips, "Yeah, _that's_ why."

"We heard that, young man!" Donald snapped, attempting to speak in a fatherly tone.

Goofy smirked and began in the same tone his feathery friend used. "Now, now, Sorie, you know it isn't nice to make accusations." The knight waved a finger at said accusation maker, causing both of them, including Riku, to burst into laughter. Sora stayed silent for several moments as he felt his heartbeat quicken when something stabbed at it. He was being silly, he thought before finally smiling when he realised that his three friends had quietened down too and were now staring at Sora's blank expression. But it was too late, they had sensed something was up. _...Great. They're gonna ask me about it later..._

Sora suddenly made a up an excuse that he was tired and said that he was going to see if he could get some sleep before they reached Radiant Garden, waving goodbye and half walked, half ran out the door.

* * *

Sora lay on his bed in his oversized room, staring up at the high ceiling and counting every crystal on the glass chandelier—583. Despite what anyone on the ship thought, Sora's anxiety and lack of drowsiness (which is a wonder considering the night before) was because he was excited. Excited about travelling to the worlds again, excited about seeing all his old friends, excited about new worlds and new friends, and most of all he was excited about this gigantic ship and all its rooms that it had hiding away in it. The ship that they will be living in for God-only-knows-how-long.

"You're anxious about _something_, but excitement isn't it. It's half of it, but not all." Sora ignored his voice and turned to a brown scrapbook sitting on his bedside table and reached out to take it, examining the blue, red and yellow stickers and cardboard on the front, the clear plastic covering the while thing to keep it together and to make sure it lasts, his eyes finally falling on the largest strip of light blue cardboard with photographed pictures of seashells decorating the boarder, words labelled in permanent marker that read "Destiny Island" in very messy handwriting. Sora smiled at the writing when he remembered making the book when he was only eight years old: happiness turning into sadness when he thought of home.

"Here we go, I don't really need to water works!" Sora rolled his eyes and opened the book and began flipping through the pages slowly, while saying,

"If _you _think I'm gonna cry then you're _telling_ me I'm gonna cry which is gonna _make_ me cry. _You_ are, not the memories."

"Oh, I would never do that to you for my own amusement, Sora." A smug smile spread across his face as he sent the spiky haired boy a new wave of memories, sent the sounds of the waves crashing along the shore, the sound of the wind rushing by, the rattle of the leaves in the trees when said wind swishes by.

"Stop _it_." Sora said firmly only to be answered by a _very_ fake mechanical laughter, evidently making him laugh along to.

"No! You're supposed to be crying not laughing!" He whined, which only made Sora laugh more, that is, until he sent him images of tears rolling down his face, all the while chanting a mental "_cry, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry, cry!_" until Sora felt his vision grow blurry and he attempted to blink away tears that had already spilled from his eyes. Sora groaned and wiped the remaining salt water away and turned to grab one of the pillows from beside him and threw them at the red armchair sitting beside the dresser. He quickly dodged the pillow, whacking it away with his fist and sent Sora and his wet eyelashes a _very _triumphant smile.

Sora shook his head and turned back to his photo album. "You really need to get a hobby, Roxas." Sora said, smiling at a picture of him at the age of five with his mother and father on either side of him, purposely avoiding looking at the half where his dad stood for more then two seconds.

"This _is_ my hobby." Roxas laughed while crossing his legs and sitting further back in the armchair. "It's not like I have anything better to do. And believe me, it's much more exciting out here then in there." Roxas pointed to Sora's head. Sora turned another page. He still didn't know why he packed the thing.

"No, I mean like a real hobby." Sora tried again as Roxas lifted his arm up to examine his full and non-translucent hand, knowing that he was visible to no one else besides Sora. "Why don't you go take a few laps around the pool. I hear the water's great." He turned another page and smiled at a picture of him, Kairi and Riku.

"I would but, uh..." Roxas didn't finish but instead grabbed both sides of the arm chair and began rocking it from side to side. "If I remain invisible, which I am now—but you know that—I can actually touch things. Anyone who would walk in now would think your room's possessed. But if I become visible..." Roxas closed his eyes. Seconds later Roxas' entire form turned translucent and he fell through the chair and waved his arms around. Sora straight away felt a drowsiness creep onto him. "I sink in anything but the floor or solid ground." Roxas crawled out of the chair and stood beside Sora on his bed.

Sora sighed and closed the book back up and placed it back on the table. "If I go to the pool like _this_, then I would just sink straight to the bottom. But if I go like this..." He turned full again, now invisible. "People will think it's a little weird that the water is just splashing around by its self."

"Roxas, water is the only thing that's unaffected by you. Remember?"

Roxas lifted his chin in realisation. "Oh yeah." He muttered. "Hmm, maybe I will visit the pool for a bit." Roxas smiled and made his way over to the door, only to stop half way. "Actually you know what, maybe I won't do that." His voice tuned quiet and he turned back to face Sora again, his eyes sad.

"I know what you're going to ask and you know the answer's no." Sora said sympathetically.

Roxas sighed. "Yeah, I know."

"Roxie, it's not that I don't want you around when we're walking the worlds, it's just easier for both of us to get killed that way." Roxas frowned at his little nickname that Sora had adopted for him.

"I know, I know, I know. You've told me one million times before. I can still fight though," He tried again, lifting his hand up in the air and summoning one of his Keyblades. "I can still summon these."

"We're both more vulnerable when separated, you know that, Roxas." Sora told him in a harder tone.

"I know." Roxas grumbled before slumping down on the ground. "Can't blame a guy for trying, huh?" Sora was glad to hear the joking tone return in his Nobody's voice. They had had this argument countless times before that Sora knew it practically by heart. Roxas wanted to get back in action, Sora said no, Roxas argued, Sora argues back, Roxas would eventually give up and slump down on the floor. But he never gave up _that_ quickly.

Suddenly, a wide grin appeared on Roxas' face and his eyes narrowed and fixed on Sora's. The next thing Sora knew his head hit the pillow and he burst out into a fit of hysterics for no apparent reason. Sora held his middle and clenched his teeth together and built a mental wall that he was getting better and better at with each of Roxas' visits. With his other hand Sora pushed himself back into a sitting position and glared at the person who had become like a brother to him during the past year.

"Stop it!" Sora ordered in what he hoped was a threatening tone. Roxas only rolled his eyes and Sora fought through more laughter. "Stop controlling me for your own personal amusement!" Sora laughed, this time genuinely.

"Just go with the flow, Sora! Do you want me to bring out the water works again?" The Nobody mused. Sora just shook his head when another wave of hysterics hit. The poor kid just managed to choke out a few death threats before Roxas finally put him out of his misery and cut the laughter all together, allowing Sora to take that long awaited breath. Sora lay there for a few moments before sitting up and glaring playfully at Roxas.

"You know, two can play at that game." Sora mused before sending Roxas the clearest mental picture of Namine that he could manage. The blond girl appeared in Roxas' head much more clearer then any other picture that Sora had ever sent him, smiling and waving. Sora watched in pure amusement as Roxas' face turned as red as a tomato when he made Namine wink at him. Roxas' eyes went wide and he bit his lip in embarrassment, turning his head to the ground and suddenly becoming _very _interested in the laces on his shoes.

"That's not fare." Roxas grumble which only made Sora chuckle.

"What, you've done that to me. Thirty times to be exact."

"Uh-huh, but you're keeping count." Roxas shot back.

"Toushé."

Roxas turned his head to the door from where he sat abruptly and Sora asked him what was wrong. Roxas didn't answer. He only turned back around slowly and winked at Sora. "Incoming red-head in three...two...one." As on cue a rhythmic knock came from the door and Sora found himself dumbly staggering, "Wh-who is it?"

"_Who is it?_" Roxas imitated in a voice that was so accurate it was almost scary. "Who else do you know that knocks like that?"

"_It's Kairi. Can I come in?_" came from the other side of the door.

"Uhhhhh..." Sora's eyes darted to Roxas for help.

"Say something, Porcupine!" Some help.

"It's open!" Roxas face palmed himself and shook his head, just as Kairi's head peeked through from behind the door. "_Princess_, Sora! That means that you, as the gentlemen, must always open the door for the lady! Not just shoot out an "It's open"!"

Sora sent through a mental "_Shut up!_" as he watched Kairi close the door behind her and walk over to where Sora was still perched on the bed. Feeling a little awkward Sora jumped off the bed and walked over toward Kairi (all the while fighting to hold back laughter when Roxas needed to practically leap out of the way when Kairi walked up to where he sat on to floor.

"Hi," Sora greeted.

"Hi," Kairi smiled brightly back.

"...Hi."

"You just said that."

"I know,"

"You know what?"

"Huh?" Sora shut his lips together when he realised that it was Roxas who spoke, not Kairi. "Uh, what?"

"You said 'I know'." Kairi told him in a confused tone. Sora smiled sheepishly and ran one hand though his hair. "I was just talking to my...self?" Sora muttered. It was actually half true.

Kairi lifted her chin and smiled in realisation. "Roxas bothering you?"

"What?!" Sora staggered back ward in surprise and Roxas shot up from the ground and practically flew over to the two, careful not to bump Kairi.

"Can she see me?!" He waved a hand in front of Kairi's face and let out a breath of relief when she didn't bat an eye.

"W-what d-do you m-mean?" Sora stuttered and Kairi laughed and moved over to take a seat on Sora's bed. "Oh, well sometimes Namine talks to me in my head and she said that you and Roxas could probably do the same thing."

"Oh. She talks to you?" Kairi nodded. "She doesn't like, come _out_...does she?"

Kairi frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing, just a random question." Sora cleared his throat. "Yeah, just the little annoying voice at the back of my head keeps popping up every so often."

"Hey!" Roxas exclaimed, clearly offended. Sora ignored him and focused on Kairi as she smiled at him and patted the spot next to her on the bed. Sora walked over and sat down and Roxas made for the armchair, but thought against it since Kairi will probably notice the cushion sink when he sat and just settled for the floor again. "_Go away!_" Sora sent Roxas. He got up from the floor and moved over to the far end of the room and into the en-suite. "Happy?!"

Sora interrupted what Kairi was saying, "Do you want to go somewhere where we can be alone?"

Kairi frowned at him as Roxas stuck his head out of the bathroom door. "You do know you're the only one who can see or hear me, right?"

Sora quickly shook his head. "I mean, do you want to go to the roof?"

Kairi smiled, "Sure."

* * *

"You see it?"

"I think so..."

"That one right there," He pointed. "You see how it's bigger and brighter then the one next to it?"

"Um, Yes—Yeah, I see it now!"

"That's Neverland."

"Wow..." Kairi stared up at the sky with twinkling eyes at the star Sora pointed out to her. When the two got to the roof Kairi had asked Sora to tell her more about all the worlds and the ones that she didn't get a chance to hear about the night before. Sometime in between Sora had actually began to point out which star was which world and took pleasure in watching that glow appear on Kairi's face and her eyes widen in awe. The over all top of the roof was genuinely flat with thick silver metal travelling all around the perimeter so that no one could fall off. That is, oh course, if they jumped they could.

Kairi threw her head back and stared vertically upward. "All these stars are so beautiful,"

"They are, aren't they." Sora spoke in a trance like whisper and went to do the same thing, but when he leaned backward, instead of his hand landing on the cold, red metal of the Gummi ship, it came in contact with warm skin. Sora looked down to see his hand resting softly upon Kairi's. The boy's face automatically went red when Kairi looked down at their hands, too.

Kairi felt a warm electric fuzz jolt through her when Sora didn't pull away, and she felt to comfortable and safe to even think about pulling away. The red-head suddenly felt confused about how she could just feel so same and warm by just his hand on hers. Kairi was snapped back into reality when Sora cleared his throat and looked ahead of them again. "I remember Donald telling me about this other world just next door to Neverland. Pixie Hollow, I think it was called."

Kairi tore her eyes away from Sora and looked ahead. "Or maybe it was _part_ of Neverland...what did he say...?" Kairi kept on watching him as he trailed off into thought, occasionally murmuring some words on his breath that were too low for Kairi to understand. But she didn't care. Just being with him was enough for her, being close to him, being able to see that sparkle in his eyes whenever he told her about all the worlds and all the friends that he had made, watching the dreamy smile that he couldn't quite keep hidden for more then two seconds appear on his face whenever she asked him a new question...

"Part of Neverland!" The exclamation almost made Kairi jump and she realised that she had dozed off into la la land while Sora continued to ramble off and scan his brain for what ever it was he was stressing about, she had forgotten already.

"What?"

"Donald told me that Pixie Hollow is a little island right next to Neverland, home to all the Pixies that control the seasons." Sora finally told her.

"Oh, must be nice there." Kairi whispered as she watched all the stars zooming by but unable to keep her eyes off of the boy for more then eight seconds.

"Oh, right there!" Sora suddenly thrust his arm out toward what was supposed to be just one star. "You see that one?"

"Sora, all these stars look the same to me, you have to be more specific then just "that one"." Kairi laughed.

Sora chuckled. "Sorry," He suddenly took his hand off Kairi's only to lace it around her waist and pull her closer to him, catching the girl off guard. Kairi felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "Right there. You see that one star? The one that's green?"

Kairi, still blushing, choked out, "Their all green over there."

"I know, but you see that larger star right in the middle with a slightly richer green then the rest? The one that has the tiniest bit of blue mixed in?" Sora pulled her closer. Kairi went redder.

"I—I think so,"

"That's Atlantica." Sora answered. "That's how you can tell the difference between stars and worlds. Worlds are larger and have brighter colours, as a posed to stars which are smaller, dimmer and reflect the colours of the worlds on them; that;s why it's hard to point the worlds out sometimes."

"Well you sound like quite the expert." Kairi laughed.

"I do." Sora frowned, confusion suddenly hitting him in the face. "I don't know, I guess someday I just decided to start paying attention,"

"And that's a bad thing?"

"For me it is," Sora joked.

Kairi turned her head to look at Sora. "Hey, um, Sora? There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"O-ok. What is it, Kairi?" Sora turned.

"Well, you know how earlier you said that Roxas has been talking to you?"

"Yeah,"

"Well I was just wondering what he was like." Kairi concluded, causing Sora to send her a puzzled glance.

"Why do you want to know about him?" He asked.

"_I_ don't," Kairi explained. "But, uh, Namine wants to know and she wouldn't stop bugging me until I finally agreed to ask you." She smiled. Sora turned his eyes down, it wasn't really what he hoped she wanted to talk about.

"Well, Roxas is...Uh..." Sora didn't know where to start. How does he describe his Nobody? Sora's mind flashed to where Roxas was walking around the halls, his hands in his pockets and he would occasionally swing his foot to kick an imaginary pebble. Roxas watched as Donald and Goofy came around the corner, both murmuring about something that they shouldn't forget. Poor thing. Sora didn't know what it was like to be confined to such limitations, to not be able to be your own person. Sora's mind flashed back to when he first found out that he could talk to Roxas. He woke up one night to find himself on a large glass circle which had an image of him in the middle and all his friends surrounding him.

"_Hello, Sora._" Sora turned to find the translucent person that had stepped out of his body in The World That Never Was a few weeks ago, standing right in the middle and looking full and whole, nothing ghostly about him. "_This is as much of a shock to me as it is to you._"

Sora remembered how at the start Roxas pretty much refused to leave his own mural, only ever travelling to Sora's when he wanted to talk. Sora would usually make his own way down to his mural to visit Roxas, just to make sure that the Nobody wasn't lonely—he didn't want to do that to him—and Roxas would sometimes call him down—although very rarely. After sometime the two found that they could actually communicate telepathically when Sora was awake and a few month later finally started leaving Sora's body (he will never forget the look on Sora's face when he woke up one morning and found Roxas just sitting there in his room).

But that was then. _Now_, Roxas hardly ever leaves the _real world_. He never told Sora why but Sora scanned his brain one time when he was distracted and found that he was silently hoping that one of these days he would find Namine walking around too.

"Roxas is...well he's...hard to describe." Sora finally settled with. "In a way we are similar but then completely different. You know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I actually do." Kairi responded, thinking of Namine.

"Most of the time he's serious about everything, but other times, like tonight, he just jokes around—kind of like how I would."

"Does he talk to you often?" Kairi asked, this time it was her own question.

"Ha!" was Sora's answer, but quickly realised that Kairi would know what that meant and fixed, "Yeah, a lot. How 'bout you and Namine?"

"Oh, well sometimes. She calls me down to my or her mural for chats and sometimes speaks in my head. But other then that we don't really see much of each other. Hey! What was that you said before? About he being able to come _out_?" Kairi asked suddenly, moving up so that she could see him better.

"Oh, um, it's nothing. Really." Sora turned away.

Kairi raised an eyebrow, "Sora,"

The chestnut haired Keyblader turned back around, defeated. "Well, it's just that uh..." ..._I promised..._ "I just woke up one morning and thought that I saw Roxas sitting there. You know, from the corner of my eye. But I guess I was just seeing things." Sora hated to have to lie, but he promised Roxas he wouldn't tell anyone that he was walking around the Gummi ship. He didn't want to be thought of as a ghost.

"You were probably just tired," Kairi whispered, her gaze locked on Sora's. She could see the reflection of the stars in his eyes as they flew past. A perfect mirror.

"Yeah, probably." Sora whispered. He could actually see the same thing. The two felt their faced being drawn together by some invisible force and their eyelids getting heavy. "I...I don't want to talk about Roxas any more,"

"What...do you want to talk about?" Kairi breathed, their faces inches apart.

"Nothing." Sora and Kairi closed their eyes, feeling their pulse quicken. Their lips were only a heartbeat away when...

"**Everyone aboard the Gummi ship please report to the main room immediately, please!**" Dan's voice boomed over the speakers. "**I repeat: Everyone report to the main room/ lobby/ whatever you want to call it! Oh, and just so you're wondering, YES I mean you two on the roof as well! You know who you are! **_**Get your buts down here! **_**That is all.**"

Sora and Kairi opened their eyes and stared at each other awkwardly. Both their faces was still red, and still _very_ close, and they were both pretty sure the other could hear their heartbeat pounding against their chest. Sora was the first to pull away, leaving Kairi inwardly morning his absence already, and got to his feet.

Sora brushed himself off. "Uh, we should get going." He mumbled before extending a hand to Kairi and smiling warmly. The princess returned the smile before taking Sora's hand and being pulled lightly to her feet. The two didn't realise that their hands were still entwined when they left the roof.

* * *

_...If looks could kill, I'd be a dead man..._

"What?" Dan asked all too innocently as Mia, Donald and Goofy were ushering the three teens into the room. Riku and Kairi both sat down on the couch right away but Sora had stopped next to Dan and gave him the best death glare that he could manage. _...I interrupted something, I just know it. Mia's gonna kill me..._

Sora shook his head and walked over to where his friends were sitting and took a seat next to Kairi, who beamed as bright as one of those stars outside as soon as she saw him. Sora returned the smile. The two sat there smiling at each other unaware of Riku staring at them with a grin on his face. Riku then looked around the room to what the other four were doing. Donald and Goofy had taken a seat on one of the other couches and armchair and were finally back into their normal clothes. Mia was jumping up and down in the centre of the room, trying to reach a chord that dangled from the ceiling. She hovered their for a millisecond, her arm flailing around in the air, her fingertips just barely scraping the plastic loop at the bottom before Dan walked up to where she stood and pulled the cord for her, pulling down a large white screen, before walking back over to a small laptop set up on a folding table by the corner. Dan punched some of the keys at lightning fast speed and gave a thumbs up to Mia. The girl spun around on her heel, her long red hair swishing around her body as she moved and clapped her hands twice to get everyone's attention.

"Ok, guys," Mia began when she had everybody's eyes. "What I am about to show you may just be the object of this journey." When she was sure that everyone was confused enough she turned to her friend and held up one finger. Dan nodded and pressed a button on the computer. Moments later an image appeared on the screen.

"A couple years back, when the Organisation was still in power, there was always this much smaller group of people also plotting the same things as they and Maleficent were. They have no official name, but merely go by "The Cult". This group pretty much play both sides of the board. They were working with that evil she-witch and with Organisation XIII. The Cult didn't really last with the Org. because of too many differences and ideas on how to concur the universe and, while they were at it, Kingdom Hearts. They eventually parted with the Organisation and are now working alone, with the occasional help from Maleficent, but their intentions have not changed."

The picture changed to a very old picture of Maleficent and someone wearing a black cloche with the hood hiding their eyes. Neither one looked happy.

"The whereabouts of their Headquarters is so far unknown, but we do know a little something about the people on the inside." Mia held up three fingers and Dan pressed another button. The image of a man with dark hair that changed to bright red at the tips and brown eyes appeared on the screen.

"This is Samuel. First of the three main soldiers and a duplicator. He is able to create multiple copies of not only himself but others as well, useful for using someone's power against them. Only catch is that he must have a piece of their DNA before hand to be able to create clones of them, e.g. a strand of hair of piece of skin. He is extremely dangerous but not the worst. Next slide please, Dan."

A soft click was heard before the image changed to a girl wearing all black and bright red eyes that almost glowed. "This, is Ruby: member no. 2. She is what you would call a shape shifter. She is able to change her molecular structure, cellular make up and DNA into that of any animal or creature that she wants. This girl is also know as the truth siren. She is very skilled in playing innocent-little-girl. She is everything but. She will make you believe that she is one of the good guys and on your side, but she is not. She is deciding, manacle and a filthy back stabber—betrayed her own sister just to save her own life. If any of us should come across her in the near future, avoid the eyes and don't listen to a word she says, it's probably all a lie. Even if she tells you the sun is round. Next slide please."

The slide suddenly changed to a guy with shoulder length green hair and matching eyes. "This, is Davis. Member number three and the most deadly out of all of them. He is what you would call an illusionist; the worst kind of assassin. This guy kills you from the inside out. Able to get inside your head and show you all kinds of scenarios that seem _very_ real and make you fight for your life. He is able to take away any and all of someone's abilities to put the game in his favour. Once you die in his little arena, your brain shuts down, automatically ending your life."

The whole room was silent, everybody was hanging on every word that she said. "Now, uh, the two main guys, we didn't really have any pictures of so I, um, improvised."

Suddenly everyone was forced to hold back laughter when an image of a figure with a stick body and huge head with fangs sticking out of his mouth appeared on the screen. Dan sighed and shook his head.

"The second in command is someone who goes by the title of The Professor. His real name is unknown at the moment. He is an evil genius with a body full of magic. We do not know much about him, only that he travels the worlds to do the main dudes bidding, is able to control a small amount of Heartless and has been in that group for more then two decades."

"And," Dan's voice interjected, causing everyone to take their eyes of Mia for the first time. "he has a speciality in cold magic. Meaning, Ice, water and all kinds of blizzard spells. Aim fire at leg."

It was safe to say that everyone was at a loss for words. Mia almost looked scared for a moment. "Dan..."

"Yah?"

"How do you know this? I though I was the mind reader?"

"Yah."

Everyone waited. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"How do you know this?!" She almost yelled.

"He came to Disney Castle during the Heartless attack and I fought him for a little until he left." He said as if it were nothing. Was this guy for real?

Mia's mouth drooped open. She put both hands on her hips and stared at him accusingly. "HOW COME YOU NEVER TOLD ME THIS?!?!"

"Just didn't come up." The guy answered innocently. Yeah, he had an innocent side.

Choosing to ignore him, Mia shook her head while muttering something that should not be repeated under any circumstances—_ever_—under her breath. The girl didn't realise that she let the mind reading thing slip, but no one was game enough to ask questions.

The slide changed to a similar picture then the previous. The only difference being there was what looked like a crown on top of the figures head. "The leader of the clan is someone by the title of The Master. Unfortunately we know even less about him. In fact, _no one_ knows much about him at all. He was merely a nobody before he came to The Clan eleven years ago when the old master was in power. Somehow this guy managed to over through him and take on his title and position."

Sora felt a familiar spark at his heart when she said the words "Eleven years".

"Any questions?" Everyone was still silent. "Oh, c'mon! There is no such this as a stupid question!" You wanna bet?

Sora raised his hand, Mia beamed. "Yes, Sora?"

"Yeah, did you draw those two pictures by yourself?"

You could only imagine the look on the girl's face. "Anyone else?"

Sora raised his again. "Anyone at all?"

Sora waved his hand eagerly until Mia shot him a look and he dropped it right away with no questions asked. She sighed in relief when Riku put his hand up.

"Thank you, Riku," She smile.

"By how you described these people, it sounds like their masters of disguise, or something. If so, how are we supposed to know if it's any of the members or not?" Inside Riku was secretly asking the question on why, in his days with the Organisation, he never heard of such a group.

"You'll know when you find yourself fighting for your life against someone who simply appeared out of nowhere." Mia answered. "Because even though we may only know so much about them, don't think that they only know the same amount about _you_."

Before anyone could utter another word, Mia asked again, in a softer tone, "Any more questions before we move on?"

Guess who's black gloved hand appeared.

"Anyone _besides_ Sora—_put your hand down!_"

"You don't even know what I'm going to say!" The boy yelled.

"Your going to ask about my drawings!"

Silence.

Mia sighed. "Fine, yes, I drew them. All I can say is blame my parents. Satisfied?"

Sora nodded.

With another sigh, Mia turned her head and shared a look with Dan before the guy gave one sharp nod and sat back in his chair, hands away from the computer. Mia turned back to them, eyes serious. "What I am about to show you is not for the faint of heart." The girl paused, pondering whether to say more or not, until she finally decided not to and motioned to Dan to change to the next slide.

Suddenly Sora's entire world went still.

"These, are the Ghosts." Mia's voice was muffled in the background, but all Sora could hear clearly was his pounding heart. The boy's blue eyes were fixed on the horrific creature staring back at him on the screen, the projection turning half of Mia's heart-shaped face a pale, slime green of the substance oozing out of the huge dark creatures mouths. He couldn't stop staring at those bright yellow eyes, blue teeth and razor sharp claws. He was aware of Mia's soft voice in the background, but could brake his trance to listen to what she was saying or look to see the expressions of any of his friends. All he could feel was the numb grip of Kairi holding his hand. Sora's face went pale, very pale, and felt his stomach doing flips.

Sora closed his eyes in attempt to lift some of the faintness. He couldn't believe it, those horrible and torturous creatures that he saw in his dream merely hours ago were actually..._real_? Just as quick as he had closed them, Sora tore his eyes open and forced himself to relax. Luckily, everyone was too struck to pay any attention to him. But Sora thought that he held Mia's eyes for the shortest of a second before she moved away. Much to his surprise, Sora felt his heartbeat lessen, the colour return to his features, his body becoming cool again. He also got his hearing and sense of touch back as he looked down to see Kairi sticking to him like glue with her entwined around his, all but crushing his bones. Sora somehow managed to slide out of her grip and lace his arm around her shoulders instead. Kairi instantly felt more comfortable and safe.

"The Ghosts are creatures that have been brought into existence by force, and should never have been in the first place. The Ghosts are created when the Heartless of one is taken and forcibly fused with the soul of another. The image you see here is one of the many older Ghosts. When first born they have a slightly human like figure with proper limb and eyes, until they finally morph into this after a few years. Here is a picture of one of the younger Ghosts."

The slide changed into what looked like a man. The poor man was bald with some markings of what looked like letters atop his head. The man's skin was a dead pale blue with many scars and scabs of rotten skin here and there, his lips were the same colour as the oozing green slime and all his teeth were gone. He had glowing yellow eyes that seemed to be screaming for help.

"Despite what you see here, despite how much this man may look like he is in pain: he is not. Once someone is converted into a Ghost, they loose all sense of their humanity and only know one thing: _kill_. These creatures are incredibly strong and extremely hard to kill, but these is always a way. You may find that magic works better then weapons. The Ghosts work alone and usually fight one and other to become stronger. Only a Ghost which has taken the life of another Ghost _and _a Heartless can receive the power to create."

Sora suddenly felt the need to turn his head to the right side far wall, and understood why the second he did it. Sora looked to see Roxas leaning up against the cream metal wall, all his attention locked on the red-head talking that he didn't even notice Sora staring at him. Sora decided that he could use the double information.

"There is only one man in the entire universe who is in charge of the creatures," Mia continued. "We called him The Keeper. H...he...is now dead." Mia closed her eyes to stop her voice from cracking. Dan was rising from his seat, "Mia—"

"I'm fine." She waved her hand and forced a smile. Dan shook his head and, without sitting back down, unplugged the laptop all together and came to stand next the Mia. No one noticed him take her hand.

"One The Keeper _left _the Ghosts were free to break out of their prison and wreck whatever havoc they wanted. Somehow, no one knows how, the Ghosts were able to find a portal..." Dan paused for a while before continuing. "A portal of time, and were able to come _back_ into this timeline a couple of years ago."

"Wait," Sora spoke up. He was the only one left that still had a voice. Donald and Goofy were starring at their hands. "Are you trying to tell us that the Ghosts...are from the future?"

Dan and Mia responded simultaneously. "Yes."

Dan continued. "From the future, the leaders from the three main worlds sent five Keybladers from each world back into this time to try and find you guys. But something happened when we all got here and were ambushed by that of what we were trying to defeat and..." He broke of when he realised what he shouldn't have let slip.

"You just said 'we'," Riku finally found his voice, and he stared at Dan with wide eyes. "So does that mean that you two..."

"They'll find out eventually," Mia whispered to Dan. "Yes. Dan and I are from the future."

"Holy crap." Sora and Riku muttered in perfect sync.

"Our other three friends that we were sent here with, along with the other thirteen have been taken by The Clan, and we're the only two that managed to escape. If we were all captured then..." Mia didn't need to finish the sentence, Sora, Kairi and Riku understood perfectly well.

"Once we find the Twilight Prince he can help us save our friends so that we can finish what we started. Until then, since we're here we can't corrupt the timeline more then in already is so," Dan and Mia took their time to look all three young Keybladers in the eyes, "we will be protecting you three no matter what."

As soon as she finished talking, Sora's eyes caught onto something outside the window in the distance and immediately _ordered _Roxas back into his body. The Nobody did not object.

"Uh, hey, you said you were going to be protecting us, right?" Sora asked, his eyes still locked outside and he subconsciously pulled Kairi closer.

"Yeah. Why?" Dan said in a puzzled tone.

"Then you might wanna start with _that_."

Sora pointed to something in the distance. Everyone in the distance turned their heads to see an entire mass of Heartless ships charging at their Gummi.

**

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**

Hello! I'm sorry about such a late update! But I have just been so busy lately, it's not even funny. Can any one relate to that? T-T

**Anyhoo, so there you have it. Such a long chapter, took forever, and you finally know the truth about Mia and Dan! Yay! **Anyone care? Anyone not?

**By the way, I would like to know what you guys think of Mia and Dan's characters. Like them? Don't like them? Love them? Hate them?**

**And I know some of you might want to kill Dan for interrupting that kiss (and probably me for making him). But he means well. (And so do I (I'm too young to die!)) **

**PS: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. **

**Please Review. **

**Oooo**

**o o**

**o**


	14. The Enterance Part 1

**HEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLOOOOOOO! I bring you the continuation of chapter 13! Yay! I call it...**_Dun da da-da! _**...Chapter 14!**

(Do you think I'm to peppy????)

**Annnnnyway, please enjoy!**

* * *

**Disclaimer still stands. **

Darkness...

That was all I could see. All I could feel...

Something cold, something dark was penetrating my mind, and I felt myself slipping further and further away from this world. I could feel my heart weakening as the darkness fought harder and harder to engulf it whole—to engulf _me_ whole.

I was sinking, swaying deeper into the great unknown, the water freezing more and more of me the further I dropped.

_A figure in the distance was slowly descending through the water. Invisible eyes watched him as he fell._

Slowly Cracking open my frozen lips I forced in a deep breath into my lungs...

_A tattered up, old book was laying untouched atop of an old wooden table, the words slowly appearing on the page and written in first person with a non-existent ink, while a presence sat there silently watching as each new letter appeared. _

My eyes burst open and I watched as dozens of tiny ice crystals sprayed all around my sight, originally attached to my frozen eyelashes.

_Images appeared on the page._

I darted my eyes from side to side, frantically trying to indicate where I was and what I was doing here. Throwing more crystals, my arm extent to its full extent as I tried to grab on to something, _anything_, to stop my decent. Suddenly I stopped and a shooting pain chorused through me as I lay there in mid air on my back before gravity hit and the invisible force that held my arm released, sending back down and slapping me in the face on the way.

_The page turned, more letters appeared. _

Flipping on my stomach, I used my stiff arms to push the rest of my stiff self up off from whatever it was I was standing on. Once up, I looked down to see it was nothing.

_The invisible eyes creped closer. _

In the distance I could hear static. Then, screams. Then a crash. Then nothing.

Images appeared in my head, instantly causing me to clutch my skull when they overflowed. Each image came with a new flash of blinding light: Black ships in the distance (_FLASH)_ A violent rumble _(FLASH)_ People running though a hall _(FLASH) _Hands on a steering wheel _(FLASH) _A fire extinguisher spraying its contents at a roaring flame _(FLASH) _A hole in thick metal _(FLASH) _More fire _(FLASH) _Static.

_The images appeared on the page along with the words. _

A blinding light corrupted my vision before a mass of white beams of light shot out of whatever I was standing on. Instantly my mind flashed to another time and I saw white doves shoot up all around me before flying off into the distance until I eventually lost sight of them. The beams travelled around in a circular motion all around and under my feet, and I felt a sense of warmth and cold as they passed. I was now standing on a large plate of pure light, as it seemed, until it began to shift and images began to appear below me.

_The eyes creped closer._

Now under me was a glass mural. Around the boarder, written in some sort of ancient dialogue was the same words over and over again in pure golden light. In the middle and taking up the rest of the plinth as a picture of pure blue water, green, flower infested meadows, large forests, a blue sky that shifted into dark half way—indicating night time, and the biggest castle I have ever seen perched up the top, over looking the entire land.

_A steady hand reached out to a black quill that was sitting in a wooden cup moments ago and brought it to the page. Careful not to spill one single drop he didn't want, he slowly brought it down to the paper and began to write: _

"_**You shouldn't be here." **_A voice filled my ears and I searched around for it. Giving up, I turned my head back to the image in the middle and whispered, "Who are you? Where are you?"

"_**It does not matter who I am, but rather who **_**you**_** are."**_

I ignored the answer. "Where am I?"

"_**A place you do not belong."**_

"Which is where?" I felt an invisible force pulling me into the middle, but I didn't move.

_The man turned the page just as another image and writing appeared, and wrote under it, **"I cannot tell you that."**_

"Why?"

"_**Because it is not your place to ask questions, young Master."**_

"What did you call me?" I took one step.

"_**Never mind that. You need to leave. Now."**_

"Why? Where am I? What will happen if I don't?"

"_**Nothing good. Your kind do not belong in this such realm. You have to leave."**_

"What do you mean 'my kind'?" I took another step. _He turned another page._

"_**The Twilight users. Sooner or later you will corrupt the balance and poison the air." **_The voice sounded almost disgusted. With me? I guess I should be used to that by now.

"Well, I don't even know where I am, let alone how I got here so how am I supposed to leave?" I took another step. _An image of feet moving forward appeared. _

"_**Only those that are pure can be here to stay." **_I stopped immediately.

"What do you mean 'pure'?"

"_**Either those who bare pure light or pure darkness can be in this realm. You, Sora, are not!" **_

I wasn't gonna lie; that hurt. "How do you know my name? And what do you mean I am not pure?" I took another step. _The man growled in frustration before turning the page. _

"_**There was once a time that you would have been able to stay here. But you are of both light and darkness now, therefore a danger to this realm of Purity." **_His voice was becoming angrier.

I hesitated. "Well, apparently that's out of my control. You have a problem then take it up with whoever it is that gave me the Keyblade in the first place."

There was a long silence. _**"Tell me what the words say, and I will decide." **_

"Decide what?" I asked, looking at the cryptic writing.

The voice hesitated. _**"Tell me what the words say."**_

I stared at the writing. _He turned another page. _"I...I'm...sorry but I can't read this language."

"_**Try."**_ Was all he said. I frowned and looked at the writing, thinking it all looks like a bunch of scribble and pictures. Suddenly my vision became clearer and one single word appeared in my head.

"Mellinnium. It...it says Mellinnium." I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding.

The voice was silent for a long time. _**"I have decided."**_ He finally said.

I waited. "Well?" _An image filled up the rest of the page and he flipped to the next one. _

"_**You must leave. **_**Now!****_" _**He sounded louder then ever and I felt an invisible barrier slam into me and pushing me back a few paces.

"What?" I was pushed again.

"_**You are running out of time!"**_ I was pushed again. **_"You should never have come here!"_**

"I didn't _came_ here!" I yelled. "I _woke up_ here!"

"_**Whoever it was that brought you here has made a big mistake! You must leave! Find your friends! Find your leader! Before it is too late!"**_

I was pushed further. _He turned the page, frantic now. _

"Leader? Are you talking about King Mickey? This Twilight Prince?"

"_**You must leave!"**_ A gust of wind slammed into my body, pushing me backward a long ways and almost making me loose my balance.

"How?!" I yelled over the wind I could hear all around me, motioning me backward, trying to get rid of me. I was being pushed further and further to the edge. I attempted a step forward, only to be pushed even harder then before.

"_**Find your friends! Return to your world! Before it is too late!"**_

"My world?" I was pushed further. _He turned a new page and more images appeared. _

"_**You are where you do not belong—none of you belong!" **_

"You already told me that!" I was pushed again, I could feel the edge of the plinth under my heels.

"_**No. Your mind is here but your body is else where! You must leave that world in which should never exist! Quickly, Sora! Before you all are bounded and it is too tale!"**_

"Wait! Can you help me? Tell me who the Twilight Prince is!" I was pushed again but managed to stay balanced.

I opened my mouth to say something else but I was immediately silenced when a roaring gust of wind slammed into me again, sending me over the edge. There was a moment of pure weightlessness before I hit something hard and shot up from the ground.

_The man managed to write the answer to Sora's question before a strong gust of wind penetrated the room in which he was in and forced the book shut. _

* * *

_Two Hours Earlier..._

All hell broke loose.

A group of teenagers, one duck and one dog were running chaotically down a hall trying to get to the cockpit of their Gummi ship. Outside the windows were dozens and dozens of tiny black whips ready to evade and fire at will with any provocation. Turning a corner, they approached a tall tunnel of stairs that, with the lights of, looked like ran forever as a posed to the shiny new elevator right next to them that would get them to where they needed to be in half the time then the never ending decent of stairs could. As if by mere coincidence, the same sentence ran through each of their minds at the exact same time: _Never use an elevator in a emergence! _

Completely ignoring the shiny new transportation device, everyone made a bee line for the stairs, one of the boys stopping to slam his fist into a big red button on the wall. Seconds later bright fluorescent lights flashed and fluttered open, lighting up the stair case that travelled down four stories. Everyone seemed to leap down the stairs three at a time.

"Does this ship have weapons installed?" A boy with spiky brown hair yelled trough all the chaos only to receive silence. "Dan?"

"Uhhhhh..." The boy in question murmured and grabbed a rail as he span the corner, taking on the new flight.

"Mia? Donald? Goofy?" The dog and the duck didn't answer.

"We don't know." It was Mia who answered. Sora watched as her long pony tail flicked in front of her face when she turned the corner.

"You don't know?!" A red head running beside Sora and still clutching onto his hand shrieked.

"We've only been in this damn time four weeks! There is only so much that you can learn in that amount of time!" Dan yelled as he jumped down five stairs, landing on the ground before spinning and continuing down the next set.

"_Four weeks!_" Riku yelled. "Back at Disney Castle you said that you've been here for _months_!"

Dan jumped down another lot of stairs. "We lied, Ok! We do that a lot! In order to prevent the timeline from being shredded into two we couldn't really just walk up to you guys and be all" —Dan stopped suddenly and spun on his heel, almost causing Riku to crash into him— "Hi! We're your Dan and Mia, your own personal guard dogs sent from the future to protect you! Oh look, there's another thing we lied about." Everybody seemed to stop running and stand where they stood, panting and trying to catch their breaths.

"The situation is bad enough without the attitude!" Riku growled.

Dan glared and took a step closer but the two were immediately pushed apart by Mia, who put one hand on each of their chests and stepped in between them. "If anyone's going to be fighting it's going to be all of us with that mass of Heartless ships that, I thought I should mention, are CHARGING RIGHT FOR US WHILE WE ALL STAND HERE LIKE DEAD FISH!!"

A soon as Mia finished her sentence a loud explosion like bang was heard and the entire ship shook violently, causing everyone to loose balance. Sora stumbled and clutched the banister for support, grabbing hold of Kairi around her waist when she tripped and slammed into his chest. Riku fell sideways and grabbed hold of the railing just in time before he could go tumbling down the stairs. Dan slammed against the wall and Mia cried out when the tremor caused her to fall backward into the empty stair case. Immediately, Dan pushed himself off the wall and lunged forward, grabbed hold of Mia's wrist and puled her forward, wrapping an arm around her back before she could go tumbling down the remaining decent of stairs.

The tremor wore off and every one righted them selves again, but Kairi still held onto Sora's hand—one she hadn't let go of since they were in the lobby listening to Mia tell them about the Ghosts. Mia pulled herself out of Dan's chest and stared up at him.

"You ok?" He asked, eyes full of concern.

"Yeah." She responded breathlessly and turned away.

His short moment was ruined when he spun her back around and said. "Good, because it's bad enough that we need to be watching over them" —he pointed his thumb at Sora, Kairi and Riku— "but I also have to be watching _you_ like a hawk 24/7." With that he jumped up on the railing and slid all the way down to the cockpit on the remaining amount of stair.

Mia rolled her eyes and followed, everyone else at her heels. Once they reached the bottom Dan was already at the control panel pushing buttons and Mia shot out an, "Now that we're not at home any more you don't have to keep watching me 24/7!"

"I'm your _guardian_, Mia. It's my job to be protecting you all the time! First thing they teach you in guardian school." Dan shot back.

"There's no such thing as guardian school, Danniel!"

"I was being sarcastic."

Another tremor occurred just then causing everyone to cry out in shock. Keeping her balance, Mia shot out across the floor and ran across until she reached a large metal box stuck on the wall next to the elevator. Spinning a hatch she grabbed the top of the box and pulled it down, revealing a very detailed map of the entire Gummi ship. "Hey, guys! Over here!"

Everybody in the room responded to her call and rushed right over without a second thought.

"Have we always had that?" Sora asked in disbelief.

"Apparently." Donald quacked in response.

"Let me see that," Sora whispered to himself before moving directly in front of it to get a better view. The boy ran his finger over all the names and arrows on the outside, and their rooms they belonged to until he reached one that he liked.

"Weapons room. What's this?" He turned around to Donald and Goofy. The two looked at each other before turning back around and spoke slowly and unsure,

"Think that's where they keep all the Gummi weapons for situations like this one," Goofy answered. A glance from Donald showed Sora that he didn't know any better either. Without thinking, Sora turned around to Dan and asked him, "Is that right?"

The guy shrugged. "I suppose so."

Sora frowned and turned back to the map. He stabbed his finger on one room with no name. Before he could say anything, Dan cut in.

"Uh, that's the engine room. The _last_ place we want to damage." Sora snapped his hand away as if he were electrocuted. His eyes then landed on what looked like a hatch opening up in one of the cockpit walls.

"What's this?"

It was Donald who answered. "That's something that the architects put in so that passengers could fire their own weapons from the inside without damaging the ship."

Sora was about to ask something else when a loud explosion was heard and the whole whip shook more violently then ever. A cracking from beside them caught all of their attentions and they turned to stare into a roaring fire that had taken refuge over one of the pipes in the room.

"That cant be good!" Dan rushed forward, instantly bringing out his Keyblade, and pointing the nose at the open fire. Seconds later some sort of blue substance somewhere between water and steam burst from the point and onto the fire, extinguishing it completely moments later. Something inside Sora instantly snapped into place and he turned back to the map.

"Ok. We need the split up. Riku and Dan, you two get to this 'weapons room' and see if there's anything in there that you can work with." The two nodded almost immediately and dashed off up the stairs to try and find this room.

"Kairi and Mia, I need you two to stay here. If anything caches on fire, fix it and we need you to tell us if any of the ships start attacking from behind." The two girls nodded.

"Donald, Goofy, you're with me. Do you know any that that will open up this 'hatch'?" Sora asked as quickly as he could. Donald and Goofy both nodded and looked around for a bit before finally Goofy pointed to a spot at the wall.

Sora ran over to it immediately. Not knowing what to do, he stood there inspecting it for a moment before reaching down flicking a switch that was positioned on the bottom right hand corner of a huge roller door. A short beep was heard before the little red light turned into green and the roller door opened up. Inside was a small, empty room with one large open rectangle cut out of the front. At first Sora wasn't so sure about the room, but after watching his two friends bolt in there with no questions asked, Sora merely took a deep breath before charging in there himself. As soon as the Keyblade Master was in he was surprised to find that they all could breath.

"How can we breath with no glass there?" He shouted through the chaos of the Heartless ships firing at them.

"There is a shield around the Gummi, Sora." Donald answered, getting his staff ready for any attacks.

"Shield?" Sora asked, bringing out his Keyblade. He stared at it for a second pondering whether he will be able to use it correctly. "Does that the attacks wont have that great an effect?"

"No, they wont. But the shield con only withstand so much. Eventually it will fail." Goofy got out his shield.

The full weight of it suddenly hit Sora. "If the shield fails, the that means that we will be sucked into space right away,"

Donald and Goofy hesitated. "...Yes."

One of the ships opened fire on the Gummi ship and the three reunited battle comrades snapped into action. Sora, taking a deep breath first, pointed his Keyblade at the a posing ships thinking _'Fire!' _and was surprised when a bright, strong beam of light that was a mixture between red and orange shot out of his new Keyblade and shot through space as fast as lightning, blowing half of a Heartless ship away. The remaining metal hovered there for moments more before finally exploding and taking out another ship that was right next to it. But Sora wasn't the only one that was shocked. Donald and Goofy were staring at him with wide eyes and mouths hanging open, all action ceased for the moment.

Their expressions of shock turned into bright smiles when they beamed, "Good one, Sora! That was great! Looks like you wont have any trouble with your new powers after all!"

Sora returned the smile and sighed in relief, but he couldn't ignore that tiny something gnawing at his heart telling him that it wont be that easy. A beeping on the wall made them all turn their heads. An intercom was sitting on the wall beside the entrance to the room and Goofy went over to answer it, leaving Sora and Donald still on alert.

Goofy pushed the button and hesitated before answering. "_He_-llo?"

"_Goofy?_" Riku's voice buzzed at the other end. "_What in the world just happened?_"

"Uh, well I don't really know there, Riku. Sora just pointed his Keyblade at the Heartless ships and then—_**bam**_!"

"Sora_ did that?_"

"Don't sound like you find that so hard to believe!" Sora shouted from the background.

"_Sorry._" He quickly apologised. "_Well Dan and I found the_—" A loud blast in the background cut off what ever Riku was saying before static replaced it. Goofy called out Riku's name a couple times before pushing a few buttons on the intercom. Around the fifth attempt Riku finally responded to his name.

"_It's ok, that was just Dan._" A muffled "_Sorry!_" in the background followed Riku's voice. Goofy noticed something in the distance making its way across the sky before landing perfectly on one of the ships and crushing it to smithereens.

"Was that a cannon ball?" Goofy yelled into the intercom.

"_Yeah._" A mixture of Riku and Dan's voice answered.

Another tremor surged through the Gummi and Goofy lost transmission with Riku again. This time he couldn't get it working again. "I lost them!" Goofy shouted.

"Never mind that!" Donald responded. "We need you here now!"

Goofy nodded and joined his two friends just as five Heartless ships aimed fire.

* * *

"Goofy?" Riku shouted into the intercom. "Goofy!" The only response he received was a roll of static. He pushed a few buttons on the device, but when nothing changed he gave up. "Dammit! I lost them!"

"Never mind that!" Dan shouted as he ran between all the different weapons in the room. "I need you here now!"

Riku ran over to where the other boy was loading up yet another missile. When Riku and Dan first got to this room, they couldn't believe their eyes. The weapons room was a dark red room about the same size as the cockpit, loaded with all kinds of effective machinery all lined up on the wall by the window that could be dubbed useful during a Gummi battle like this one. It was fully stocked with missiles, guns that shot out not only bullets but also some kind of white beam of light, and also, as Dan had discovered, cannons like ones that one would find on a pirate ship in Port Royal.

"Whoever it was that thought up the idea of Cannons on a Gummi ship is a genius!" Dan shouted through all the shooting and firing.

Riku pulled down the leaver of one of the missiles, firing out a large silver metal at one of the Heartless ships. The missile hit the target dead on and converting it into rubble, smoke and fire in a matter of seconds. Dan did the same thing with another cannon.

"So, you're really from the future?" Riku asked, getting ready to load another missile.

"Yes." One of the Heartless ships fired a beam of some sort of light at the Gummi causing it to jump and rumble to entire ship. The two fought to keep their balance. Once the tremor faded a high, continuous beeping caused the two to turn their heads to the right and find a monitor on the wall flashing some writing and a mechanical monotone spurt out, "WARNING. SHEILDS AT 73%."

"Dammit." Dan breathed under his breath before moving over to one of the guns. "Yeah, Mia and I are really from the future." He said as he got ready a box of bullets.

"How is it?" Riku asked curiously.

Dan hesitated for a moments, busying himself with the last of the load. "It's pretty good, I guess."

"Is it anything like now?" Riku grabbed a cannon ball.

"Yeah, you could say that. It's pretty much the same but the technology is a little different. But what did you expect."

"I don't know, flying cars I guess." Riku shrugged, pushing a cannon ball into its place and bringing out his Keyblade.

"Flying cars?!" Dan exclaimed. "Don't be crazy! Only in Radiant Garden."

Riku stopped and turned his head, staring at the boy next to him strangely. He shook his head and lit up the string with his Keyblade. Riku stared at Dan, _...I have a feeling that those two are going to be a handful. But still, I can't shake the feeling that he looks almost familiar..._

"Hay, Dan?" The ear splitting crack of the cannon dulled his words but the other boy still had no trouble hearing him.

"Hmm?"

"In the future...where you're from...am I, well, am I there?" The silver haired darkness user asked with an unsure voice. He expected Dan to answer with yet another sarcastic remark, but was taken back when the guy only laughed, something Riku thought he would never hear come from _him_.

"What?"

"N-nothing. Really. It-it's just that, you don't even know what time period we're from—I could be from 1000 years in the universes future for all you know." He choked through laughs.

"Well, then what is it?" Riku said.

"What is what?"

"How many years into the future?"

He didn't answer right away. But pulled the trigger of the gun he was holding onto and watching in frustration when he missed. He didn't answer at all.

"Dan—"

"I can't tell you that." He cut him off. "But what I can tell you is that it is between ten to fifty years."

"That doesn't give me much." _...Maybe a descendent of someone I've encountered throughout the worlds..._

"I know. But it's all I _can_ give you." He said, firing another bullet and missing again. Riku simply nodded and lit another missile.

"Riku," Riku turned toward Dan, who had stopped everything and was looking at him with a stare of pure seriousness. "If you're meant to know, you'll know." Riku could feel Danniel's green eyes piercing into his own, and looked away immediately. Another explosion and tremor tore through the space vessel, the impact knocking Riku and Dan to the ground almost immediately.

The sound of what sounded like warp beams chorused through their ears in a deep crescendo, the two soon found themselves covering their ears to try and fight away the terrible screeching, only to be hit with another tremor. The rumble dimmed the slightest, but it was enough for Dan to be able to regain his legs and half crawl over to the window. There he saw something that caused him to blink twice to make sure he was seeing correctly.

"What is it? What's happening?" Riku managed to shout through the chaos, slowly beginning to pull himself up to his feet. Dan didn't answer, he simply watched the scene before him unfold into what it was with unsure eyes. Emerging like a wave of darkness out of the floating mass of black ships, with the only colour on them was the perfectly outlined heart symbol with the two curling tails that was the Heartless emblem, was an even larger, near perfect replica of all the now tiny ships that was surrounding it. Dan felt Riku pull the rest of him up to where he was leaning up against the railings, but couldn't take his eyes off the mother ship long enough to see Riku mirror his expression.

"What in Kingdom Hearts is that?"

* * *

**This is part one of this chapter. I just thought I'd lean away from the long chapters for a bit, so this way I am able to upload more frequently ^-^. Oh, the part in the beginning with Sora narrating, that was what was being written in the book, and whatever the man (who's identity is unknown at the moment (at least to you. ^-^)) was writing is was the voice Sora was talking to. I just thought that I wasn't clear enough. **

**Anyhoo, hopefully chapter 15 will be up soon: then I can finally introduce my next OC! Yay! I'm excited! The character will not be coming in in the **_**next **_**chapter exactly, but maybe one or two later. Yay! **

**There is two more OC's I am yet to introduce (including the person I was talking about above /\). Well, the **_**main**_** OC's anyway. I like to call these two "The Nomads". You'll see why, although I guess you can guess... -_-**

**Once again I would like to apologise for my horrible grammar and spelling. I'm sorrrry.**

**Anyway...**

**Please review!**

**Disclaimer stands. **

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	15. The Enterance Part 2

**Hello! Here is the continuation from the previous chapter!**

**Hope you enjoy! **

* * *

The tined _**click-clack **_of her shoes chorused through the halls in which she passed, the small creatures that hid in the shadows of the already dark vessel all stared at her as she swept past them, long cape dangling behind her, the hem just barely brushing the stone cold tiles as she marched. With a long staff of great length, one that reached even higher then she, the older lady sent any creature a stare of pure ice and twitched her poisonous staff ever so slightly in their direction, threatening them if they dared to even _flinch_ near her. The poor lower animal would stare at the witch they took orders from, their eyes portraying the slightest amount of fear in their deadly yellow hue, and cower back into the shadows in which they crawled out of. Usually on any other day at any other time, the sorceress would be welcoming the Heartless, urging them rear so that they could do whatever whim that she ordered them to. But not today.

She had one set task at hand and she could not afford to screw it up yet again. She finally had those wretched Keybladers and their sorry excises for a wizard and knight friends surrounded, even if they didn't quite know it yet. But that was all the better, because after all this time, after all her failures and losses, she was actually beginning to believe that the element of surprise was almost all she had left. So to her, whatever was still on this ship and not out on many of the smaller ones and preparing to aim attack of the Gummi vessel could very well just rot in the corners that they cowered in for all she cared.

As the witch reached the end of the hallway she was marching down, she took the time to gaze out one of the incredibly large windows that overlooked the entire area of space they were in, taking notice of the amounts of Heartless ships that were just now flying into view, ready to do their masters bidding and take down that Gummi ship. A hard, cold, sadistic smile slowly crept on to her features, making her already thin lips even thinner as she thought of all the things she could accomplish with taking over the universe and, at long last, Kingdom Hearts itself when that pathetic boy who calls himself the Keyblade Master and friends are finally out of the picture.

"I wouldn't be smiling if I were you." A cold laugh from behind her brought the witch out of her dream. "You really think you can win? Please. If you were strong enough to win you would be somewhere by now!"

Maleficent turned toward the voice with a stony scowl and faced the boy who had just insulted her, speaking in a tone that she never though that she would ever hear escape her gangly lips.

Sarcasm.

"I quite enjoy these visits of yours, Stefan. I really do."

Stefan raised an eyebrow and rolled his blue eyes, crossing his arms and ankles as he leaned up against the opposite wall. "Spare me."

Maleficent growled. "Don't you have somewhere else to be? Someone else to annoy while you try to fill that empty void you call a life?"

"No. Don't you have somewhere else to else to corrupt? Someone else to destroy while you try to fill that bottomless cauldron you call a heart?" Stefan shot back. He also seemed to be twirling some sort of silver rod around his fingers. As much as Maleficent hated being in the same room as the boy, she surprisingly didn't want to end their conversation. Crushing the boy's impeccably large ego was one of the many things she actually took pleasure in.

"What do you want this time, boy? Come on, out with it, I don't have all day!"

"Technically, it's night—no, wait! ...Nnnnow its night." Stefan smiled widely and tapped his wrist, pointing at a watch that wasn't there. "Oh. Yeah. That's right. I lost my watch in a poker game down in Port Royal."

Maleficent shifted her weight impatiently, "Sometimes I wonder how in the worlds you deal with your insanity."

Stefan shrugged. "Being insane is better then being an emotionless psychopath." He grinned. Maleficent growled. "But can you blame me? I've been by myself for my entire life, you know? Oh wait. You _do_ know that. Because you helped in taking me away from my family!" The silver rod seemed to extend an inch.

Maleficent waved a hand. "Stop being so melodramatic, boy. We did you a favour. And you haven't been alone your _entire_ life. What are you now? Ten?"

Stefan glared. "Fifteen."

"Still young."

"What do you know about being young. The last time the description 'young' was under your name was—how long ago was it? One hundred and fifty years ago?"

"Oh, look who's learnt his numbers!"

With the slightest twitch of Stefan's fingers, the sliver rod in his hand exploded out in his hand and extending out to the witch as fast as lightning. Stefan kept a great hold on his weapon and walked forward toward where the sharp, thin blade was positioned just shy of Maleficent's neck, the length on the weapon shrinking in size as she came forward. The weapon seemed to be some kind of Scythe of a sort, with a slick silver body that could extend, shrink and bend at will. The actual blade of the weapon was a large blade of the thinnest bone, the soft grey tint adding to its appearance.

"Don't importune me, witch." Stefan snarled. "You are in no position to be insulting me right now. You really think that you will be the one to control Kingdom Hearts? You think that _you _will be able to find the Twilight Prince before they do?" Stefan cocked his head in the direction of the Gummi ship. He laughed at her tauntingly. "You have a fool for an assistant, can't even kidnap the youngest of Princesses of Heart and _keep_ her with you, and seem to be taking orders from some dude who talks about "ridding you for good" behind you back! You really think you'll be able to find the one guy in existence that can make even the strongest of Heartless cower in a corner and get him to be on your side?" He snorted. "Please. I bet you my munny this attack goes south." He motioned to the Gummi again.

"C'mon. Make me your offer, witch. 50 bucks? 100?" Stefan's grip on his weapon of death itself loosened the slightest at Maleficence's neck. "Don't be shy!"

The witch glared at the teenager standing in front of her with pure hatred. In her mind, she and her unofficial "boss" at the time did do a great deed by granting Stefan the pleasure of "removing" him from his home, family and friends. But, most importantly, his brother. _This _was something that Maleficent will not and can not let go. If she knew that the boy's older brother was going to grow up to become the Keyblades Chosen One, then she would have just ended his life then and there eleven years ago!

Stefan burst into hysterics. "It's funny how things turn out! Even all those years ago it was obvious that you were destined for failure!"

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!" Maleficent roared, but Stefan only ignored the outburst and continued on laughing until the soft _**thump**_ of heavy footsteps echoed down the hall to their right. The brunette turned his head when a loud gasp engulfed the room, and saw the witch's assistant standing there with an open jaw and wide eyes, staring in shock at the scene before him. Stefan rolled his eyes and finally stepped away from the lady, his scythe shrinking back into the small metal rod before he slipped it into a latch on his belt.

"Don't worry. I wasn't _really_ gonna chop off her head. I don't need the mess!" Stefan grinned widely and Maleficent glared, noticing the smile. _...This little bozo's more like Sora then I thought..._

Pete continued to stare at Stefan with fear, remembering the last time he encountered the kid. "Uh...n-not to b-be of bother, but t-the Heartless a-are getting' a b-bit reckless."

"Well, then I guess you should go and take care of that, shouldn't you, grandma?" Stefan laughed.

"Wh— what should I do?" Pete struggled. He would feel a hell of a lot better when they were away from that room. Stefan grinned in great triumph at the cat's mind-numbing fear, knowing it was pointed at him.

"Well, I suppose we have delayed attack to long. Tell them to ready fire." Maleficent placed a sharp nail on her chin.

Pete stared at his master in compete and utter obliviousness.

Maleficent roared, "Ugh! Must I do everything myself!" before stomping down the rest of the hall, her hard heels angry against the black tiles, leaving Pete to wobble obediently behind her, his feet jumping every so often to avoid treading on her cape. The last thing she heard before she turned the corner and shut the immensely large doors behind her was Stefan singing down the hall, so that all the Heartless could hear, "It's never gonna work!" and disappearing in his mass of blue and yellow sparks before they could lunge at him.

Maleficent shook her head as she sat in her throne, a big black seat in front of a large and spotless window where she will get a front row view of the show.

* * *

It had been nearly twenty minutes now and still no progress. If anything it seemed as though the useless Key-brats were winning. And what the heck was with the golden nuclear bomb like fire ball? Maleficent sighed and hunched her shoulders, she could hear Stefan's annoying and smug voice ringing in her ears. Growling in complete and otter frustration, Maleficent shot up out of her chair and waved a very eager pointy hand, and watched impatiently as Pete slumped out of the shadows of the room she sent him into and glide over the floor to her.

"You fool!" Maleficent punched her assistant backward, where he almost toppled over, when he stumbled over his own large feet and collided with her.

"S-sorry! What is it, Maleficent?"

"I need you to put in a message for me. To those parasites." She jolted her staff over to the surrounded Gummi ship. Pete nodded quickly and threw out a quick "Right away" before running over to board full of all sorts of bells and whistles and typed in a code in the keyboard. The cat frowned when a message reading "ACCESS DENIED" flashed in red upon a computer screen above the board. At this point the witch felt her anger explode out of her and she marched over to where Pete stood, still fussing over the combination, and pushed him out of the way whilst making sure that this time he did fall to the ground.

"OH, GIVE ME THAT!" She screamed and ditched the computer all together. Instead she reached up high above her head to pull down some sort of microphone. She pushed a button on the bench and laughed into the speaker.

"HAHAHAHA! Hello. I suppose you weren't expecting this outcome." She stole a glance through the window to see the ship emerging through the masses of smaller Heartless ships around them. "I find it fair to worn you that you are in fact surrounded, and that the chances of you winning is futile." Maybe that last part was a lie.

"One more attack and I will order the Heartless to blow you all to bits, so just surrender the Princesses and we will be on our—"

A hissing sound echoed the room and a voice boomed through the speakers that she didn't even know they had, _"S'rry, love. You 'ave de wrong numb'a!"_ The hissing came again and the voice disappeared. Maleficent simply stood there for mere seconds with a black expression. The intercom had gone silent and she could feel a slight vibration in it.

"What was _that_?"

* * *

Danniel didn't answer Riku's question. His body was frozen and his eyes were fixed strongly on to the large black object moving toward them out of the mass of Heartless ships that had all ceased fire on them. This new this scene looked familiar but he couldn't quite out his finger on it. Dan closed his eyes and tried to think, scanning his mind for whatever can help, searching here, there and everywhere for the answer. Dan's eyes shot open when he realised and hissed the one name that came to his head:

"Maleficent."

Even thought it was meant to be only to himself, somehow Riku had heard him and turned to the brunette with shock. "Maleficent?"

Suddenly, a loud screeching modulation echoed in the large room with dozens of weaponry. The two turned their heads to the little grey box on the wall that Riku had just used to communicate with the others not very long ago, where a muffled, mechanical laughter boomed through, static interrupting it every now and again.

"_Hello. I su-pose you wer-n't ex-ecting this o-tcome." _

Riku turned his head back to the window, now being able to fully make out the large black cloud that was descending toward then as a large ship. He groaned. "Maleficent. I was wondering when she was going to show her ugly mug to us again." (A/N: 1)

"Hmmm." Was Dan's answer, it sounded like he was agreeing, before he shot out of his frozen stance and ran over to the intercom. "How the hell is she able to talk to us?" He asked, to himself in particular. Riku joined him just as he began tapping lightly on where the voice comes through, and Maleficent spoke again.

"_I find it fair to worn you that you are in fact surrounded,_" Dan pulled out his Keyblade,_ "and that the chances,"_

He pointed it at the intercom. "What are you doing?" Riku asked.

"—_of you winning is futile._"

"—She has to be getting through somehow. If this works, we'll know."

Suddenly, a sharp, thin, black beam of light shot out of the end of his Keyblade and into the centre of the intercom. A few seconds past and the little light in the corner turned green.

"Yes!" Dan put away his Keyblade again.

"_One more attack and I will order the Heartless to blow you all to bits,"_

Wait, what did you just do—"

"_so just surrender the Princesses and we will be on our—_"

Dan suddenly pressed the button in the corner, the one that allows you to make contact with the people at the other intercom. He could hear the sound of the hiss that the microphone makes at the other end and could hear his own voice echo. Dan quickly cleared his throat and changed his voice drastically, making it deeper and putting on a thick British accent.

"S'rry, love. You 'ave de wrong numb'a!"

Riku raised his eyebrows when Dan took his finger off the button and the light turned red again. Dan grinned and turned from the intercom to Maleficent's ship. "Magic. Is their anything it can't do?"

* * *

"What just happened?"

Mia and Kairi came running into the small hatch where Sora, Donald and Goofy all stood, completely dumbfounded. The two girls had been zipping around the cockpit non stop, putting out fires and mending broken pipes that the Heartless damaged with their attacks. Sora got up from where he was kneeling on the ground, his eyes closed and head down, feeling a bit light headed. _...I knew it was too good to be true. I really need to learn to tone in down a little..._

Kairi noticed Sora sway the slightest bit and reached forward to steady him. Mia noticed too but she hid it and didn't move. Sora simply shook Kairi off with a smile.

"I don't know." He answered truthfully. "All off a sudden their was this big attack from one of the Heartless ships and then nothing. They all just stopped and—and was that Maleficent's voice on the intercom?"

"Yes. It was." Mia answered, walking forward and tapping the device the same way Dan did. "I don't know how she was able to tap into our system, but she was. And apparently Dan worked it out too." She smiled.

"What now?" Kairi cut in. "Any minute they are gonna attack again if we don't respond."

Mia closed her eyes and silently prayed, "Please still be working." And beamed when she pressed the button and the light turned on. "Dan?" Just static greeted them. She tried again. "Danniel, if you're there pick up!"

"We can't." They all jumped around to see Riku and Dan standing at the entrance. They all sighed in relief. The two were looking quite anxious of what just happened, looking out at the Heartless ships impatiently, as if expecting an attack any second. Sora asked the question that was on everyone's minds, but Dan simply said he didn't know.

"Well that's just perfect." Donald sighed. "What do we do now.

"There is no way were giving _her_ what she wants." Sora jabbed his thumb over his shoulder at Maleficent's ship. "That witch should know by now that we don't just give up without a fight."

Everyone nodded and began to walk back to their former positions, until Sora stopped them. "No. We're doing this a little differently." Everyone shot him a puzzled expression.

"Change our posts. Donald, Goofy, I need you two to go back to the weapons room with Riku. Wait for my signal and give 'em everything you've got. Kairi, Dan, Mia. In here with me."

They all nodded and began moving to their new positions. As Donald, Goofy and Riku were running out of the cockpit, Riku whispered to Donald and Goofy, "This is better. Dan sucks at firing a gun, anyway!"

"_I heard that!_"

The three of them suddenly began running faster.

Back with Sora and co., the four were all standing in one line at the window of the hatch, preparing for Sora to give whatever signal he he was going to give to the others. Kairi asked Sora if he knew what he was doing and after a few seconds of hesitation, the boy answered and quick and easy "sure". Mia then asked what about if any more pipes brake or caught on fire and he said that they will just have to deal with it later, they can't afford anyone not fighting back. Dan turned to Sora and told him that the other three should have reached the weaponry room by now, which Sora nodded to blankly, his mind elsewhere, and pointed his Keyblade at the mass of ships that were duplicating by the second. The brunette shut his eyes tight and silently asked his Keyblade for the simplest ball of light, but when he felt something fire out of his blade, it wasn't light.

Sora staggered where he stood for the tiniest seconds, feeling suddenly sick in the stomach, and when he saw what came out of his Keyblade he understood. Instead of light, like he asked, Sora saw a big ball of darkness shooting across the stars and converting to sparks right in the middle of the "battle field". Sora shrugged and muttered, "Ah. Close enough.". Before they knew it, the Gummi ship was shaking again, and they all caught a glimpse of the mammoth Heartless ship in the centre of all the chaos open up in the front, before thousands and thousands of Heartless came shooting out of it, hurtling straight for them. The four snapped into action just as a group of laser bullets shot right into the middle of the group, only to see each and every one of them dodge the attack.

Kairi fired a blizzard spell at the incoming Heartless and watched in horror as they flew around the blue ice crystals or it just bounced right off their skin. "What the?" Kairi fired again, this time a lightning spell but the yellow electricity simply rebounded and came back at the Gummi ship, hitting the metal just above where they stood and caused them to stagger. Sora quickly caught Kairi before she could fall out. Dan frowned in confusion and fired a darkness spell at them, seeing it dissolve right on their skin without leaving a scratch.

"Dammit!" He screamed.

"There weren't even this many in Radiant Garden!" Sora added, but was paid no mind.

"What is it? Why isn't anything we do affecting them?" Kairi yelled through the sound of the missiles Donald, Goofy and Riku were firing.

"They have shields around them!" It was Mia who answered. "Some sort of _Reflect_ spell. It will just keep reflecting everything we send at them!"

Without a word, Sora jumped over to a panel on the wall and pressed a few buttons at lightning fast speed, before a loud metallic rumble was heard and thick rusty red coloured stutters slammed together, covering where the window used to be. "Every one into the cockpit!" Sora shouted and the three obeyed soundlessly. Sora just reached the intercom and was just about to make contact with the weapons room before another tremor broke through the Gummi, sending all of them to the floor. Sora pulled himself up and stared in horror at the top of the cockpit wall where small dents were being made with every bang.

"They're trying to get in!" Kairi shrieked as Dan pulled her and Mia off the ground. Sora slammed his fist down of the button and yelled into the speaker.

"Pick up if you can hear me!" No response. "Riku! Donald! Goofy! Pick up!"

"_Sora?!_" Donald's throaty voice quacked at the other end. Without knowing how or why, Sora's hearing increased and lessened on everything around him until all he could hear was the sharp _**THUNK**_ of the Heartless. Sora felt a sharp stab at his heart, like when he was back at Destiny Islands and sliding down that ventilation shaft. The gnawing was increasing every moment he stood their with his eyes sewn shut. Sora's eyes began to sting and he was aware of his hammering heart, one that was beating one thousand miles an hour. Sora opened his eyes and felt something inside him click.

"I need you to forget about the Heartless for now! Fire everything at the ship! Guns, missiles, cannon balls, spells—I don't care! _Just take down that ship!_"

There was silence on the other end, static replacing the wizards voice as he contemplated what Sora had just said—and, most importantly, the tone he used when he said it. It was cold, violent, and full of rage that Donald thought it was someone else speaking. After some more time, Donald finally buzzed through the speaker.

"_Roger._" Static appeared when Donald took his finger off the 'speak' button, moments before a mass of bullets, missiles, cannon balls, and all sorts of magic exploded into the sky and right at the dark ship where Maleficent stood upon. Dan ran up to a nearby window and whistled as he watched the show, the bullets hitting the targets dead on.

"Maybe Riku is better at it then I am. Ah!" Dan exclaimed and jumped back in surprise just as a Heartless jumped on to the window, clawing and bashing the glass with its head. "Oh no you don't!" He summoned his Keyblade with a flash and quickly unhooked the hatch on the porthole before blasting the Heartless away and shutting it as fast as lightning.

"If they get in here we have no hope!"

Suddenly another tremor shocked through them all, knocking them to the floor again before a loud beeping siren chorused through their ears and a monotone voice chanting: "WARNING. WARNING. SHIELDS AT 14%. REPEAT: SHIELDS AT 14%."

"Fourteen?!" Mia and Dan exclaimed at the same time before Dan added , "I stand corrected. If the shield reaches zero _then_ we have no hope!"

"Way to be optimistic, Danny!" Mia shouted sarcasticly.

Sora lay flat on his back with his eyes closed. All he could feel was the cold ground underneath him, and the slight weight on top of him. "Ow..." Came from above and Sora forced his eyes open to see Kairi laying on his stomach, her hands and head resting on his chest. When she lifted her head up and made eye contact with the boy beneath her they both blushed and froze, their noses lightly brushing.

"Uh... Hi," Sora muttered awkwardly.

"Hey," Kairi responded, her blush deepening. At this small moment all of their surroundings ceased to exist as their eyes drooped shut and their chins drifted closer. They could feel each others hot breath on their lips and were about to connect them when...

"Uhhhhh... Not that I'm not all for romantic situations, I am. Kissings good. I know. I get it. Trust me. But, I think that I probably should remind you, you know, in case it might have slipped your minds, THAT WE'RE KIND OF IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR HERE!!!"

Sora and Kairi jerked away from each other as if they were electrocuted at the sound of Dan's fuming voice, and stared up at the two teens staring down at them as more dents were being made in the walls. There were no words that could ever describe how embarrassed they were right now. How could they let them selves get detracted like that. _...Sure,_ Kairi thought sarcastically, _falling on top of the boy you love when a Heartless attack sent a vibration through the Gummi and were beating holes into the walls trying to get in and kill us all makes for a pretty romantic situation..._

It was kind of funny when you think about it.

Mia placed her hands on her hips and stared down at the two. "Usually I would punch him or slap him for ruining a moment like that, but right at this moment I agree. Don't worry," She grinned, "I'm sure theirs time later for you to continue." Dan laughed at her comment and the colour of both Kairi and Sora's faces go from tomato to, like, lava red.

_...Again... _Sora thought as Mia and Dan helped them to their feet. _...that's the second time that's happened in an hour..._

"_You mean "almost happened"." _A chuckle echoed inside his head.

"_Shut up, Roxas."_ When Sora caught Dan's eye for a split second he added something else to his thoughts,_ ...and the second time he's gotten in the way!_

As they were walking back into the centre of the cockpit, getting ready to attack the Heartless if they get through, Sora wasn't sure but he thought he saw Mia grin for the shortest second right after he finished thinking that sentence. He just shrugged it off.

A frightened scream erupted Sora out of his thoughts and zapped around as fast as lightning, only to see a large, black Heartless claw break through the metal and slash around in empty air. "What?!" Mia exclaimed. "But the shields still have—"

"WARNING. WARNING. SHIELDS DOWN 100%. REPEAT: SHIELDS DOWN—"

"Yeah, thanks for nothin'!" She shouted over the rest of the A.I. Systems' warning.

Sora quickly jumped forward and summoned his Keyblade, all the while moving into a battle stance. "Everyone get ready!"

The other three summoned their weapons without a words objection and moved into their own defensive stances. They all could hear the faint muffle in the background of Dan shouting something just as the entire roof ripped open, welcoming the thousands of Heartless into the extended sized cockpit. The Heartless were slashing, pounding and lashing at the four teenagers like there was no tomorrow. The four defended all that they could for the time being, but soon found that the creatures still had their protective shields around them, much more then they can say for the Gummi.

Mia slashed her Keyblade around in the air like a whip, collecting some pale blue air before releasing the current. The girl watched as her ball of air collided with a group of Heartless, before her expression turned into one of horror when they shook it off and were unharmed. Kairi, noticing, changed her tactics a bit. Noting that her magic has no effect, the princess sprinted straight at a group of Heartless, her mind all the while flashing over one of Sora's lessons in particular. Back on the Destiny Islands, Sora had taught Kairi many tricks that would come in handy during a battle. This particular one caused her to use air to sort of propel her into their air, where she could attack any enemy head on if they were flying in the air; that way she would waist all of her magic when she didn't need to use them.

Waving her Keyblade around in a circular motion when she reached the spot she wanted to, Kairi squatted down for the briefest second before leaping hight above the ground. She brought her Keyblade up to her chest, the blade pointing upward, she she flew directly under a Heartless she was determined to take down. When her Keyblade made contact with the dark skin of the creature, she was filled with a small light of hope when her blade struck its leg and the Heartless winced at the impact. But the flame was then extinguished when the Heartless and two others around it raised their large claws up above their heads before sending them slashing down on the girl, propelling her back down to the ground below her.

Sora saw the scene before him with wide eyes and jumped out into a sprint to where Kairi was falling. "Kairi!" Using his Keyblade, Sora jammed it into the ground before using it to push himself off the ground, and leap over a large chunk of metal sticking out of the floor that was just flat seconds before, and managed to land over the other side with steady feet before sliding across the floor and catching Kairi in his arms before she could crash. They both fell to the ground from the impact just as a large dark Heartless with a hole in its chest, just as the one that was attacking Sora and Mia back at Disney Castle, threw its giant claws down on them. Kairi screamed as Sora quickly grabbed her and pulled her with him to the side, missing the large claws by an inch.

They felt the Heartless' claws rip into the metal bellow them and tear a hole right through the floor. A sudden gust of air penetrated the room, and Sora, acting fast, grabbed Kairi by the waist and threw her to the side, seconds before he was caught in the strong air current. Kairi rolled to a stop after Sora pushed her and lifted her torso up from the ground, only to scream out Sora's name in pure and utter horror when she saw him get pulled through the hole in the floor. Sora fell through and cried out when he felt nothing but gravity beginning to pull him to his death, and lashed out his arm and managed to grab onto a piece of pipe on the bottom of the Gummi ship. Sora was in too much shock that he didn't even notice the Heartless rip into the control panel in the Cockpit whilst another flew bellow the ship and slashed at the engines, until she was assaulted by a mass of smoke coming from the shredded engine and saw the slightest patch of green in his blurred vision below him.

Sora also didn't notice that his Keyblade had fallen out of his hand and was being pulled down to the world below until he looked down to see nothing but his dark gloved hand.

Dan jumped forward into a sprint, dodging a couple Heartless that charged at him in the meantime and slammed his Keyblade into the ground. He kept a strong hold on the handle and stared down at Sora below him before straightening his arm to Sora. "Grab on!" He commanded, screaming through the chaos. Sora responded by thrusting his hand forward, reaching as far as it would let him before he realised it wasn't enough.

"I can't reach!"

Both boys almost lost grip when the Gummi ship made an unexpected jolt and spun around in the air out of control. Although, Dan did intact loose grip of his Keyblade when a Heartless slammed into the side of the ship, causing to whole thing to rock. He slid backwards along the floor fast, his arms reaching out for his Keyblade to try to summon it back to him or for anything to grab hold of. Dan almost had his Keyblade back when he felt a sharp pain shoot into the back of his skull as his cranium collided with something before his vision went black.

Kairi watched from where she lay on the ground, fighting to stay concious when she felt something collide with her skull, and saw a blurry version of Mia being thrown up in the air, her back smashing into the hight wall before the blur fell back down to the ground and didn't move from then on. Kairi tried to move but couldn't, tried to get up, to fight back, to reach Mia or Dan or Sora but didn't know how. Her entire body was screaming in protest. Kairi lay fighting to move on the ground, her arms scraping forward as her vision faded in and out, and watched many little dark blurs above her head lash and claw at the walls, the pipes, the control system.

Somewhere in the distance Kairi heard the faintest roll of static erupt the room and the voice of her best friend call her name, screaming something that she could not decipher before a loud crash and ripping metal sounds replaced the gibberish all together. Kairi felt the faintest word of protest escape her lips before her world grew black.

"Kairi!" Sora called from bellow the Gummi, fighting to stay on. "Kairi!! Dan! Mia!"

Sora's entire body shook and he almost slipped when the biggest tremor yet broke the Gummi in half, ripping a ridged line straight through the middle before it broke off into three more pieces. Above him Sora could see all these black figures zooming around where his friends once stood. Suddenly Sora threw his arm up in the air above his head, his palm facing the Heartless and his fingers outstretched. A surging bright and warm heat built up in Sora's chest as he felt a awesome engulf him on the inside from head to toe, before all the light was pushed into his outstretched arm. Above him the last thing he heard was Riku's voice blast over the intercom that was, somehow, still working before the other half of the Gummi ripped in half again and began falling faster to the earth below them that was getting closer and closer by the minute. Some sort of word escaped Sora's lips in some foreign tongue, before both his eyes flashed a brilliant gold and a powerful bright light exploded out of his palm and engulfed the ship whole.

The last thing Sora remembered was the pipe that he held on to breaking and his vision turning dark, before he shot up off the hardest plane he had ever felt and a strangled, pained scream burst through his ears.

**

* * *

**

You know what I've noticed? I have been ending my chapters in cliff hangers recently. Don't shoot me or anything! I don't know why, I just can't help it!

**Sorry this was a long wait, too. I had this assignment for school that I needed to finish and hand in. Worth 30% of my grade! **

**I hope to get the next one in soon. But that's what I said about this chapter, so I wouldn't hold your breath. -_-**

A/N:1: So was I. I kept changing when Maleficent was finally going to make an appearance. At first it was supposed to be all the way back in chapter 10!

**That's all I have to say. Goodnight, ladies and gents!**

**Please review. **

**oooo**

**o o**

**o**


	16. Welcome To Broken Kingdom

**Hello again. Here is the sixteenth chapter!~ Yay!**

**Disclaimer stands. **

* * *

**Enjoy!**

Sora shot up from the ground in a start, a strangled, tortured cry was the first to greet him. The scream echoed in his ears so loudly that the spiky haired boy guessed that somewhere around him someone was near, and in excruciating pain. His mind was a tangled mess and his vision wasn't any better. All Sora could hear was the pained cry. It wasn't until the brunette became aware of the sharp shooting pain jabbing straight through his flesh, tissue, muscle, bone and all of the above repeated that he realised that the person screaming was himself. Suddenly everything clicked into place, and Sora could remember the thousands of dark demons penetrating the Gummi ship he and his friends were on, attacking everyone, injuring them, destroying the controls, ripping a hole in the floor...

Sora gritted his teeth together, trying to control himself despite the unknown pain he was in, as more and more flashes bore into him one by one.

Mia attacking the Heartless.

Kairi jumping up at the Heartless.

Kairi falling.

Himself catching her.

Metal ripping.

Dan.

Himself again reaching out for someone's hand but could not reach it.

A sudden gust of air.

Riku's voice over the intercom.

Static.

More metal ripping.

The Gummi ship being split in two.

His hand in front of him.

A bright golden light.

Warmth.

A pipe breaking.

Pain. Screams. Darkness.

Darkness...that was all he could see of hear or feel around him. Darkness and emptiness. Sora's mind then flashed to the most recent thing that he could remember. He was falling in water, there was a voice that was talking to him, but did not want him around. The voice was warning him of something, but he couldn't remember what. The voice had asked him to read something, something that Sora knew he shouldn't be able to read; but he could. He answered the question with no struggle then asked one question of his own. Sora could sense that the voice was about to answer, a light was shining and then—

And then he woke up with his entire body aching.

Frustrated, the boy lifted his hand up to his eyes and rubbed them. That was when he realised that he could feel his hand on his forehead, but couldn't see his arm in front of him. Grunting from the pain and confusion, Sora waved a gloved hand in front of his face but all he could see was a soft shadow moving backward and forward. Sora muttered a soft curse under his breath and looked down at his legs. It was like trying to see through an old wash cloth! You can see light and small things that stuck out in the places the cloth was more faded then others but everything else was just gone.

Feeling around on the ground, and ignoring the pain, Sora tried to push himself up to his feet, but was only sent back down when the knife like stabbing just increased ten times more. Wincing Sora moved his hands to just below his right knee, the origin of most of the pain. The young Keyblade Master could feel the fabric of his pants torn around a hard object, and felt his heart skip a beat then speed up when his fingers lightly brushed over something sharp.

And rough. And hot. And wet.

Sora threw his head back and his torso fell down to the rough ground beneath him. Some sort of sound somewhere between a sob and a laugh escaped Sora's lips when he realised that what he could feel below his knee was his bone piercing out of his flesh. Grunting again and trying to peer through the cloth in front of his eyes, Sora knew there was only one thing that he could do. During the years of travelling the worlds with Donald and Goofy, the one thing that Sora could remember Donald telling him was that it was extremely difficult to heal a dislocated bone. Not entirely impossible, only difficult and out of Donald's capability of magic. And right now saying the bone was dislocated was an understatement.

Where were Donald and Goofy, anyway? Or Kairi or Riku or Dan or Mia? A striking and horrific thought crossed Sora's mind and he instantly cursed himself for even thinking it, and threw it out of his head.

Grunting, Sora pushed himself up into a sitting position and ignored the rest of him when it screamed in protest. He moved his two shaking hands over to his exposed tibia and grate his teeth together, bracing himself before pushing hard on the bone and slipping it back into where it should be—under the skin. One last strangled cry escaped his lips before he was allowed to breath and force himself to calm down. In thirty seconds or so Sora's breathing was back to normal and the rest of the pain was being greatly ignored. After all, he _had_ been in far worst situations then _that_.

After a few more tries to get to his feet Sora eventually gave up, clamped both hands over his mouth and shouted,

"Hello! Can anyone hear me?!"

Sora's vision was still dark and wash cloth-y but it was slowly beginning to get better. He tried again when only a dead wind answered him. "Kairi? Kairi!" He turned his head, "Riku! Donald, Goofy! Mia! Dan!" Still the air. "Is any one there?! _Can anybody hear me?!_"

Still nothing but the wind. Sora sighed and yelled back to the wind, "Guess not!"

Sora rubbed his eyes in frustration when his vision didn't get any better. Extending his arm out in front of him, Sora sighed in relief when he felt his arm suddenly became heavy. Memories of his Keyblade falling out of his hand flooded back. Sticking the ground with the point of his blade Sora listened to the light _**hiss**_ of the grass below him before using it to lift himself off of the hard ground floor. Smiling in triumph, Sora used his Keyblade as a cane and took a small step forward. The smile completely vanished when the next thing the hero could feel was the grass tickling his nose. Laying on his stomach in the grass Sora squinted through his canvas vision and stared at the grass in front of him.

It was long and brown.

"It can't be..." Sora whispered to himself.

Suddenly a crunching noise came from somewhere next to him and through his limited range of sight Sora could just make out a large black creature about the size of some of the trees around him. The dark blur slowly stalked around until its front was facing Sora, and the boy caught a glimpse of bright yellow, glowing eyes and blue barred teeth.

"_Oh no... Roxas?_" Sora silently called his nobody.

"_Roxas?_"He tried again when no one answered. The monster crept closer. "_Roxie are you there?!_"

Silence only filled his head. Sora was suddenly rolled onto his back and felt a pressure on top of him pinning him to the ground, a hand clamping over his mouth. Sora squinted into the blindness and attempted to summon his Keyblade or push the person off of him. The mysterious entity only applied more pressure and grabbed hold of Sora's arm with their free hand. Whoever it was, Sora could feel, moved their face close to his and hissed slowly in a _very_ soft, yet frantic, whisper.

"Don't...make...a sound," After a few more seconds of struggle Sora finally realised that he knew the voice. He managed to incline his head ever so slightly so that he could see—sort of—what the Ghost was doing. The creature seemed to be simply wandering the site. Sora's eyes widened when he saw something stick out behind where the Ghost was walking. Beyond the deathly creature stood a set of old golden gates that were broken, rusted and dimmed in colour.

Sora didn't realise the muffled cry attempt to come out of his mouth until Mia pushed harder down on him and moved closer, hissing something about not moving. Suddenly a loud whistle chorused through the trees next to them and the last thing they saw of the creature was its head snapping to where to shrill came from before it flew off into the woods. Mia sighed and relaxed finally lifting her hand off of Sora's mouth slowly and climbing off him.

Mia frowned at him, but Sora couldn't see it. "What was all that about? Couldn't you see it was me?"

"Mia?" Sora asked the air before him.

"Yes," Mia answered in a puzzled tone. "Sora, are you ok—oh my gosh!" She shrieked when she noticed the state Sora's leg was in. Before he could contemplate what she was doing, or stop her, Mia had her palm over Sora's right knee.

"Hold still," She whispered before a brilliant and warm white light shone through her fingers and palm, and before he knew it the knife that was sticking into his skin was gone. Sora sighed and closed his eyes.

"Thanks," he managed to breath out.

"Emilia!" came from the distance followed by a relieved, "Sora!"

Though his vision was still canvassed, Sora could see two shadows of what he guessed was Kairi and Dan—by the sound of their voices—racing up to him. Mia had just managed to get Sora to his feet when he was almost knocked back down to the ground again by the account of Kairi throwing her arms around his middle. By the time Sora even contemplated to hug the girl back, she was already pulling away and was asking if everyone was ok.

"Yeah," Mia answered. "We're ok. Do you know where to others are?"

Dan shrugged, his eyes extremely serious. "No. I woke up in the woods alone. Remembering what happened I tried to find everyone else but only ran into Kairi unconscious on the ground. After waking her up we some how ended up here and that's when we saw the Ghost and you and Sora right next to it. Just until before I thought Riku, Donald and Goofy was somewhere near or with you."

"No. But they were in a completely other half of the Gummi Ship when the Heartless attacked. Maybe they landed some place else." Mia concluded.

Dan sighed, "That's just perfect."

"But, thanks for driving that thing away from us back there, in the state of health we are all in there is no way anyone of us could have been able to take that Ghost."

"Ghost?" Everyone turned toward Sora, noticing that his eyes were far away. "Is that what that thing was?"

The three only stared strangely at him. Kairi placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sora?" She asked. "Are you ok?"

Sora didn't answer. His eyes not the only thing that was far away. Kairi, Mia and Dan continued to wait for an answer they were never going to get as Sora just kept staring and squinting his eyes every so often, trying to see through the wash cloth. Kairi then frowned to hide her blush when she noticed where Sora was staring.

"Uh, Sora, my eyes are up here." She placed a hand on her hip and the other under Sora's chin, lifting his head up. Kairi lifted his chin up to the point where he was supposed to be making eye contact, but Sora just stared straight through her.

"Are they? ...I..I don't know. I can't see anything..."

Everyone's eyes' widened.

"What?" Kairi gasped.

The brunette shifted uncomfortably—wincing at the extreme worry in Kairi's voice—and reworded his sentence. "Well, I can see _now_...sort of. But before I couldn't even see my own hand in front of my face." Sora waved his hand again and could see the line where his glove ended and his fingers started, but it still was very blurry.

Mia raised her chin in realisation. "Before, when the Ghost was here, you were trying to summon your Keyblade and were looking at me like I was an enemy."

"Was I? Don't answer that. Can you describe where we are standing?"

Dan frowned, "Why?"

"Just do it."

Dan crossed his arms and took a look around. "Uh, I guess the general description is _dead._ Lots of leafless trees, long brown grass, broken grey pebbles made into what looks like a path, a—"

"There's a grey path?" Sora suddenly asked, images of that dream back at Disney Castle coming back to him.

"You were expecting the yellow-brick-road?"

Sora squinted his eyes at where he hoped Dan was standing in what he hoped looked like a glare.

"Funny." Sora responded in the driest voice he could manage before suddenly becoming serious, "At the end of the path, is there this huge rusted gate?"

"Yes," Kairi answered, unsure. "I thought you said you couldn't see very well, Sora."

"I can't." Sora rubbed his eyes again and was shocked to find that things were becoming clearer and brighter. "And on either side of the gate there two big statuses facing each other."

"Yes..."

"And one has half its face fallen off and the other has just pieces of it with a whole lot of moss and weeds covering the body,"

"Yes. Sora, how can you—" Kairi was cut off by the account of Sora groaning and rubbing his eyes again, this time more violently. Mia just walked forward and told Sora to hold still again. The boy responded by closing his eyes when Mia placed her hand over both his temples, and a white light expelled through her fingers just like before. The girl released him and stepped back, waiting until Sora fluttered open his eyelids and was surprised to find his vision back to normal. Taking out her Keyblade, Mia raised the burgundy blade up in the air before snapping her fingers. Everyone watched as a brilliant green liquid-like glow washed over their entire bodies, leaving them feeling refreshed and back to 100% again.

Although his glee was short-lived when Sora was able to finally get the full view of his surroundings and he actually stopped breathing for a few seconds. The field around him was exactly the same as it was in the dream, save for the fog. It was the same leafless trees, the same dread grass that turned into ash if you crumbled them in the fingers, the same swerved stone path, same dented old gates that were connected to the two statues that Sora had described before. Images of what lay behind those gates smashed into Sora's skull so fast it almost made him stumble. Sora turned his head upward, and sure enough there was the dark green, cloudless sky infested with thousands of violet nebulas and lone stars.

Sora had theories of what happened next, because at one point he was staring up and inspecting the stars, and the next he was dashing through the golden gates and down the long path with his friends shouting his name behind him.

"Sora! Where the hell are you going?!" He could hear Dan's voice shout behind him. Kairi and Mia also shouted something that Sora didn't catch.

"No time to explain! Just follow me!" Sora managed to call back. He could see the creepy town square up ahead of him, where all the buildings and more statues were slowly decaying. Sora grabbed hold of a wooden bar to stop himself from sliding away when he swerved the corner.

Behind him he heard Kairi's voice shouting, "Sora! Slow down!"

Sora clenched his fists and slid to a stop, his shoes groaning against the concrete and dust rose from below him in impact. He was in that square with the water-less fountain, looking around him if anything should jump out and attack. Behind him came the heavy footsteps and breathing of his friends that finally caught up, sliding to a stop as well and placing their hands on their knees, panting. Sora turned around to make sure they were ok.

"Fine." Dan answered coldly, slapping Sora's hand away when he placed it on his shoulder. After a couple seconds his eyes softened and he shook his head, muttering something under his breath. "Anyway, what was that? You have no idea how many Ghosts could be running around and yet you just dash of to who-knows-where!"

"Sora..." Kairi's soft voice cut in before Sora could say to Dan anyone of the things that popped into his mind just then that he shouldn't really say. Curtsey of Roxas. "Why did you take us here?"

"I think the better question is, _where are we_?" Mia offered.

Sora didn't answer at first, but after a deep, long breath, he fired away. "Ok," he turned to Mia, "you remember how back at Disney Castle you asked me why I was so jumpy?"

"Yeah..."

He took another deep breath. "Well – and I know this is gonna sound crazy – but the night before we left, I kind of had this dream. More like a nightmare, actually. And..." Sora continued to tell the three everything he saw in his dream. From the Ghosts, right down to the dead trees and broken gate. "...except that there was a lot of fog here."

The three simply stared for some time, Kairi and Mia's mouths opening and closing, trying to find something to say. Dan was the one that managed to find his voice first,

"You're right. That _does_ sound crazy."

Mia and Kairi slapped him each on one shoulder. Dan winced. Sora held his hands up in sort of a surrender pose. "No, no. He's right. I _do_ sound crazy. But I don't know how else to explain it, that this place is the exact replica of what I saw in my dream."

Mia moved her hand up to her face and cupped her chin, considering something. She then pointed at Sora, "You said that in your dream, that their were Ghosts." Sora nodded. "But the way you described them it sounded like they were level D Ghosts, and I never mentioned any of the rankings at all."

"And how did you know about that mind-pain thing. That is extremely rare in Ghosts, ever only see once or twice. We thought those kinds of Ghosts were wiped out years ago." Dan asked furrowing his brow.

Sora sighed. "I told you, I _saw_ it!" When he took in the blank stares on their faces, Sora gave up on trying to convince them. "Look, have you ever had a dream that was so real, so _clear _that when you woke up in the morning you were convinced that it _was_ real?"

Much to his shock, Mia slowly nodded. "Well that's what this was like." Sora spun around and started singling out different landmarks in the broken square. "I _saw_ this all. The fountain, the buildings, this stone path, those decapitated statues – right down to that old, rusted, golden gate down there," he pointed to where they came from, "everything! Except, as I said, there was fog everywhere and this really creepy old guy who likes singing _Marilyn Manson songs." _

"What?" Kairi burst into the conversation.

"He called himself The Unnamed One," Sora explained. "Said that he was a spirit and that he "created this place"."

Dan cut off Sora before he could continue. "Ok, I have but one question, why didn't you mention any of this before?!"

Sora smirked his eyes, "Just didn't come up." He said cockily, imitating Dan of when he didn't tell Mia about The Professor. The two girls smirked.

"Whatever." Dan grumpily let in go.

"Sora," Kairi began. "You said this man said he was a spirit. And that he created this world. Did he happen to say why? Or even where or what it is?" At this point Sora would have been accusing Kairi of making fun of him, that is, if her tone wasn't incredibly serious.

"No. He was too busy singing, laughing, and tormenting me that he failed to mention the specifics. All he did say, though, is that he saved this place – that all it used to be before he came along was just a flat piece of rock, a dried up wasteland of what...used...to... be..." Sora trailed off, his eyes widening in sudden realisation. Suddenly Sora's mind went back to where King Mickey was showing him, Riku and Kairi that map of the universe in the little Gummi on Destiny Islands. When he was explaining the story of Mellinnium, Sora remembered something else he said about Broken Kingdom, that it was an exact replica of the beautiful world only smaller and darker.

"Oh my gosh..." Sora breathed.

"Guys!" Everyone turned at the sound of Kairi's outburst, and spun around to see her staring at her left palm with wide eyes. "What's this?" The princess gasped, her voice flooding with fear.

Sora half ran up to the red-head, taking her hand in his, and gasped as well when he saw what she was so frightened about. A strange black symbol that took up about three quarters of her palm had somehow tattooed itself on to her skin. The symbol was of a heart that bore the resemblance of Kingdom Hearts, with a small star in the middle of it. Around the heart was a thick black circle, with another thin one under it that ran through the point and two curves of the top of the heart. To top it all off was a big cross laying on top, interrupting something that would have been a beautiful, foreign design.

"I looked down at my hand and it was just there," Kairi added, her voice hinted with the smallest hysteria when she rubbed her palm but the ink-like symbol didn't come off.

"I have one, too." Dan held up his left palm to show the exact same symbol. By mere coincidence, both Sora and Mia ripped off their glove at the same time, inspecting the same thing.

Sora closed his eyes, slipping his glove back on right away, and whispered something under his breath. "What did you say?"

Sora turned to Mia but didn't answer her question. I'm remembering something that the King told us back at our home. About Mellinnium and that war."

The conversation and events ran through Kairi's mind. Sora paused and hesitated. "The... the last thing that I heard The Unnamed One say before I woke up from my dream was..." He gulped. "Was "Welcome to Broken Kingdom."."

Sora panned his eyes all around the square, the cold, dead air sending tremulous chills down his spine. Sora then took notice to the thing that he should have seen all along. In the distance, an orange light was just beginning to smother the land. But there was no sun. Just like in the dream – there was moonlight, but no moon in sight. As if reading his mind, Kairi nailed everything that he wanted to say in just one, slow sentence;

"Guys... Where _are_ we?"

Dan shook his head, "Ok, so you two think that somehow after getting attacked by the Heartless, we were somehow ended up getting blasted through a black hole, that somehow caused us to crash land on this God-forsaken rock – with the Gummi ship nowhere in sight, I might add – and somehow managed to stay alive with no more then a few scratches and bruises. Really? _Really_. There has to be a logical explanation for this."

"You like using the word 'somehow' a lot, don't you?"

"Don't start with me, leprechaun."

"LEPRECHAUN?!!" Sora growled, balling his fists.

"Enough!" Kairi shouted, before the two boys could get into another argument or – God help us all – a fight.

"Hey, Dan!"

Everyone broke off and looked to where Mia's voice rang some distance away, and the three ran up to where she was standing, "Where's your logical explanation for that?"

Sora, Kairi and Dan's all frowned in great confusion, their gaze locked on to what Mia was pointing at, just as a group of Heartless jumped out of the trees.

-------

Riku grunted in pain, straining his arms as he attempted to push his sore torso off of the ground. The boy rubbed his closed eyelids, feeling a stabbing pain behind his eyelids when he touched them. On his forehead, Riku could feel a strange tickling sensation and, with his eyes still closed, touched his exposed fingers through burnt gloves to his crown, only to feel a feather of some sort laying right across his head. Snapping his eyes open, Riku summoned his Keyblade and jumped to his feet and into an attack stance, only to see Donald and Goofy's beady eyes staring innocently up at him. The two animal-things jumped back in surprise of Riku's sudden response, but calmed down when the darkness user sighed and shook his head, dismissing his Keyblade in the proses.

"Donald, Goofy. What are you doing?"

The two didn't fail to pick up on the annoyance in Riku's voice, and were quick to explain.

"Well we found you just lying there, so I went give you a CURE spell. But then – and I'm not gonna name names – Goofy – was all "No! Don't waist your magic or potions, there might be some dangerous bad guys lurkin' around! Ah-Yuck!". So then I asked the big palooka what he thinks I should do then and told me I should just check if you had a fever. So I did and here we are!"

Riku narrowed his eyes in confusion and his mouth was opening and closing, finding something to say then dismissing it. After a few more seconds of that he pretty much gave up all together.

"Whatever." He settled with. "Where are we?"

Donald and Goofy both shared a glance, locking eyes and shrugging in complete and utter obliviousness. Riku nodded and turned around to examine his surroundings, wincing and grasping his shoulder in pain when he moved. Taking in Goofy's advice that actually seemed to make sense for once, Riku pulled out his Keyblade and pointed it upward, watching as it flashed briefly and showered over the three of them in only a small CURE spell.

Goofy stepped forward, "Have you seen Sora or the others?"

"Uh... I just woke up, Goofy."

"...Right."

Donald sighed in frustration and smacked Goofy on his leg. Hard. "YOAW-WO-OW-OWOWOW!!!" The dog barked, howling in pain. (A/N:1). Goofy hopped around in one spot like a hyperactive frog, clutching his leg in pain. Riku's eyes widened and he charged up to Goofy, clamping a hand over the knights mouth to stop his loud bellowing.

"Shh! Keep it down! That was only a small spell! If a Heartless or Nobody or even a Ghost attacks us we probably won't stand a chance!" Riku hissed.

Goofy had seemed to calm down quite a bit after Riku finished, and he nodded and managed a quick and muffled "Muow-kway". Nodding as well, Riku slowly released Goofy, only for the two to almost jump out of their skin when Donald shot up into the air, clutching his hand, feet waving all over the place, and feathers ruffled, screaming at the top of his lungs, "WHAAA-AAA-AA-AA-AA-AAAK!". Both Goofy and Riku shot at Donald, Goofy grabbing the hovering duck around his middle and Riku clamping his beak shut. "What did I just say?!"

"Sworwy..." The two let Donald back to the ground and were allowed to take a deep breath when they weren't being pinned to the ground by sharp claws.

"Gawrsh, Donald. What was _that_ for?"

The bird in question didn't answer. Donald simply shot Riku and Goofy a very worried look and thrust his hand out to them with a quick quack. (A/N:2). The two's eyes widened when they took in the strange cryptic symbol inked perfectly upon Donald's feathers.

"What is that?" Riku gasped. "It looks like ink..." He reached forward to the symbol on Donald's hand, "but it's not. Donald it almost looks like it's part of your feather colouring."

"I have one too!" Goofy shouted, showing the two his palm. Riku ripped off whatever gloves he hand left and was the exact same thing tattooed on his pale skin. His eyebrows crinkled in confusion. "What the heck is going on? Where are we?" (A/N:3).

Donald and Goofy shook their heads sadly. "What I wanna know is where Sora and them are. And what happened to the Gummi."

"I don't know, Goofy." Riku answered, honestly. "But wherever they are I'm sure they can't be far." He looked up toward the sky that was becoming lighter and lighter by the second. "Well, it's sunrise now so I guess we should go looking for them."

The wizard and knight nodded in agreement before following Riku deeper into the trees. Behind the three retreating figures, glowing yellow eyes watched them like hawks, slowly stalking up to their prey before lunging.

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King Mickey sat silently in his chambers at Disney Castle, sitting comfortably in a large red chair that was far to big for the miniature mouse's small form, with a large book placed on his lap. The king could hear the fireplace crackle every so often across the room, it's dim orange light the only source that lit up the large room stocked with elegant furnishings, bookshelves that reached right up to the hight ceiling above him, stocked with full shelves of books from encyclopaedias of every different world that you could name – well, that _he_ could name anyway – right down to fiction and fantasy novels, and a large glamorous, candlelit chandelier. The room was complete was a big, white grand piano in the corner. Outside he could hear the distant _**CRACKS**_ of fireworks when they came in contact with the night sky from one of the many festivals celebrating nothing at all in the city surrounding his luxurious home. Out of shear curiosity, Mickey let his dark eyes drift away from his book to the large window beside him, watching as the fireworks painted the blankets filled with stars off all colours, and reflecting back down upon the city. One of the round missile-like lights shot up toward the stars before the light simply stopped in mid air, Mickey raised a eyebrow.

The light lingered for moments more before finally bursting, expelling in all sorts of colours and lights right across the sky. Below him he could hear the citizens excited laughter, clapping and cheering. Mickey promised himself that he would have to one day attend one of these festivals that celebrated nothing but life itself. Simply watching all the grand works and tricks the inhabitants of the world had to offer from a window of one of the high levels of his castle wasn't good enough. King Mickey laughed as one of the people's works burst upward like a rocket before finally exploding to reveal a cartoonish outline of himself and the queen.

A ringing from the opposite wall broke Mickey out of his trance, and the mouse responded by frowning, upset that he would have to leave his peoples wondrous creations. Mickey sighed before taking one last glance out the window, where another citizen had portrayed in a mass of coloured lights into a pixie in a green leaf dress fluttering across the sky before flicking her wand one last time and zooming off into the distance. He snapped his book shut, not stopping to place the bookmark where he was up to, and placed it on the table beside him before making his way over to the little blue phone that sat on a lone side table. Mickey picked up the phone in one swift movement and spoke into the receiver with a cheery voice, "Hello, Disney Castle. King Mickey speaking,"

"Your Majesty? I'm sorry for getting you at such a late hour."

"Leon?" Mickey's puzzled tone buzzed at the other end. "What is it? Is everything ok there down at Radiant Garden?"

"Yes, every thing's fine here but I was wondering what the hold up is for?"

Mickey frowned. Hold up? "I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Leon."

"Oh, it's just that you said to be expecting Sora and the crew soon and still nothings shown up." Leon explained.

"What?!" Mickey gasped.

"They're not here yet. Everyone was getting a bit worried so the kept bugging me until I finally agreed to make a phone call." Leon's voice rang with a smidge of humour. Mickey did not smile.

"They're not there yet?"

"No. I was thinking maybe some low petrol on the Gummi, or something, or even an asteroid field that may have delayed—"

"No no," Mickey cut him off, "they left _two days ago_."

"What?" Leon gasped.

"Yes, two days. I sent them off the morning after the banquet..." The king trailed off in deep thought. He didn't really understand much else of what Leon said after that, but somehow they had said goodbye and hung up the phone and Mickey was back I his chair, the festivities outside the window all forgotten.

"Oh no... I have a _very_ bad feeling about this..."

**

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Yay, another chapter complete!

A/N:1 – Haha, I love making pun of Goofy!

A/N:2 – 'Quick Quack'. Hehe. Quick Quack. Try saying that five times fast.

A/N:3 – I find I've been using that line a lot in this chapter...

**That bit about the blindness in the beginning is actually inspired by a dream I had not long ago. I dreamt I was blind and being chased by monsters. It serves no actual other purpose what so ever. **

**I have nothing else to say. **

**Please review.**

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	17. To Open The Door

**Hello, me again. Here is the seventeenth chapter. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer stands.**

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The next this Sora knew he was eating dirt, chest pressed hard against the ground. The Heartless that had pounced on the young boy made to swipe at his back, but never got the chance on the account of the three teenagers summoning their weapons and slashing the little black create right off him. Sora coughed and shook his head, trying to rid of the little yellow sparks dancing in front of his vision. Moments later he felt a hand under his shoulder, pulling him back up to his feet, and once he was up again Sora turned around to see Kairi standing before him, asking Sora if he was ok. The latter didn't get a chance to answer Kairi's question, on the account of a group of eight or ten Heartless and Nobodies jumping out from beneath the trees and charging straight at the group, claws and what not ready for attack. The the four, it was safe to say that the Heartless were not happy, and the largest of them seemed to be restraining the smaller ones from doing any serious damage as the teenagers fought them off.

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Donald, Goofy and Riku all walked through the trees of the forest they were tuck in, and after what seemed like three hours, Riku was pretty sure that they were lost. _Very_ sure. He was also beginning to wonder if the fall, or whatever it was that happened to get them on this unknown world, had effected his head, causing the boy to be hearing non-existent sounds and noises. Behind him he could hear a sort of crunching sound that, to Riku, sounded vaguely like footsteps. But every time Riku turned around, he would only be greeted by the same cold, dead atmosphere of the hardwood and broken rocks. Riku had asked Donald and Goofy who Riku kept in front of him (he couldn't risk them getting detracted and wandering off by themselves, where Heartless and who-knew-what-else could take care of them) but the two were no help. The wizard and knight simply told Riku that he was hearing things, thus ending his suspicion that something was following them. Suddenly, the bushes next to them gave of a wild growl, their leaves shaking and rumbling violently.

"I'm just hearing things, huh?" Riku said sourly, taking in the two animals' frightened expression. Just then a large Heartless shot out off the bushes, angry and charging straight for them.

-----------

Sora just managed to quarrel of one of the first Heartless that jumped at him, watching as it dissolved into a pile of black smoke; it's pink heart floating off to Kingdom Hearts, before another leaped at the hero from behind and landing on his back. Sora jumped and spun in the air in one swift movement. The Heartless, not able to stay on, flew off and landed on the dirt in front of Sora, a silent _thunk _the only sound it made before jumping again, claws lashing out viscously. Sora parried the attack only seconds before the little parasite could plunge its claws deep into Sora's chest, and stuck his keyblade through _its_ instead. Sora allowed himself to sway for just a second and take a deep breath, still a bit shaky from not being cured properly, before another came at him.

Kairi stuck her keyblade through a Heartless' chest, seeing the thing burst into a mass of black smoke around her weapon before a red heart replaced it and fluttered up toward the sky. Kairi didn't know if she would ever get used to that. The girl took a deep breath and jumped at another as it made a lunge at Sora from behind. Kairi whacked the creature away with her keyblade. The Heartless landed on the ground and Sora spun back around and slashed at the Heartless, which dodged the attack and jumped forward to both of them, faster and angrier.

A larger Heartless jumped at Mia, its claws swiping the air viscously as it dodged her attack. The Heartless jumped around to the girl's back, and just managed to nip her shoulder blade before she spun back around in an almost elegant spin and swiped the creature, turning it to dust.

----------

Riku jumped out of the way seconds before the Heartless slammed its claws down into the ground where he was standing only heartbeats ago. Donald readied his staff and Goofy stood behind his shield. The wizard thrust his staff in the air, expelling an orange flame above the nose before the Heartless was surrounded by a deep, burning flame. The monster flinched at the sudden temperature increase, and would have been howling in pain if it had any voice. Riku responded by jumping at the Heartless, his blade held firmly in hand, and made a swipe for the Heartless. It responded by jumping out of the way and flicking him away as if he were merely a feather. Riku landed on the grass hard with a groan escaping his lips as the Heartless made for Donald and Goofy. The knight stood his ground firmly and tossed his shield at the Heartless like a Frisbee. The shield spun around and around in the air, shooting toward the Heartless before it made an unexpected turn and sliced a portion of the Heartless' head. Dark cloud formed and swelled in the place where Goofy's shield cut off a portion of its head.

Riku frowned in confusion. "_That_ doesn't usually happen,"

The shield returned back into Goofy's hand and Donald raised his staff again. Goofy moved his shield into the correct angle (98 degrees, just like in practice) and with a battle cry, Donald through a blizzard spell directly into the centre of Goofy's weapon. The blue crystals backfired off the metal and straight into the centre of the Heartless' chest. The two carried on like this for a while, with Riku watching close by with an impressed expression paining his features. That is until the Heartless slumped down and pounded the ground with its large fists, The impact sending Donald and Goofy to the grass below them. What shocked them all the most was when the Heartless turned to Riku, who was still on the ground, clutching his head in immense pain and inwardly cursing himself for not casting a full cure spell, and let out a loud, horrific howl that sounded like crashing thunder. Riku shook the cobwebs out of his skull and jumped to his feet. With his vision still a little blurry, Riku lunged at the Heartless, only to feel his legs be lifted off of the ground and pressure around his throat.

The Heartless lifted the boy it had around his throat up to its face, where Riku was in full view of its cold yellow eyes. The Heartless sent Riku the deadliest stare in the universe, before opening its black mouth, a screeching sound escaping from it,

"WHERE IS THE PRINCE?!"

Riku didn't answer. His cyan eyes opened wide in shock and his entire body froze, as did Donald and Goofy's below. The Heartless tightened its death grip and a chilling, choking sound came out of Riku's mouth. The Heartless growled again and opened its mouth, this time struggling to speak,

"...WHERE—IS THE PRINCE—?!?!"

Riku didn't know why, but he answered the creature after its grip loosened. "I don't know!" He growled, summoning his keyblade and plunging it deep into the Heartless' chest. The creature wailed before disintegrating, causing Riku to fall back down to the ground.

--------------

Dan moved out of the way of an incoming Nobody, his keyblade firmly in hand. The boy swiped at the creature, which dodged the attack and moved around to his back. Dan spun and slashed again, this time actually hitting the empty white sack , and after two, three, four more hits the creature jolted in its place and was transformed into a puff of smoke. A Heartless then made a swipe at him, but Dan turned and lashed at it before it could to him. Without realising, another jumped on his back, and Dan groaned in pain when it dug its claws deep into his shoulder blade. Dan gritted his teeth and spun his Keyblade around in his fingers, before he thrust it behind his back and felt it pierce shadow skin. The Heartless disappeared and Dan turned just in time to see the red heart float toward the sky. Next to him he could see Mia dashing toward Sora and Kairi, who were trying to fight off an angry Heartless.

Dan followed soot and jumped toward one that was about to pounce on Kairi from behind. Dan swung his keyblade vertically, hitting the Heartless on its leg before plunging it to finish the job. Kairi turned to face Dan, "Thanks," She said. Dan winked at her before turning to fight off another that jumped at him from the side. Sora and Mia were both trying to fend off one of the larger Heartless, kind of like the one they fought in Disney Castle. The Heartless swiped at Mia, knocking her off her feet and upside down. The creature lifter the girl up by her ankles and spinning her around above its head a couple times before letting her go. Mia cried out as she was thrown through the air, knowing the landing wasn't going to be pretty. Dan, forgetting about the Heartless at the moment, pointed his keyblade at Mia, firing a _Magnet_ spell at her. The next thing Mia knew she was trapped hovering inside a grey ball, before being safely put back on her feet. The red head swayed from the dizziness for a moment before snapping back into action.

Mia and Kairi both lunged at the Heartless that was trying to attack Sora, both their keyblades pointed forward. The Heartless simply dodged their attacks, and when Dan fired a _Firaga_ spell at it. The Heartless raised its fists in the air moments before bringing it back down to the ground. The tremor the Heartless caused brought all four to the ground. Before Sora could get up, the Heartless lunged on top of his and pined his arms and legs to the ground. His body tiny compared to the creature above him. In a move that chilled all of them to the bone, the Heartless opened its dark mouth and screeched out,

"WHERE IS THE PRINCE?!"

"What?!" Sora gasped. "Heartless can't speak!"

The creature in question howled, sending another tremor through the earth when the other three tried to get up. It growled again, this time with more force, "_WHERE IS THE PRINCE?!?!_".

The Heartless roared when Sora didn't answer, and didn't realise one of the others get to their feet. Suddenly the creature was hit by a bright white light, before disintegrating into a mass of black smoke.

---------

Riku clutched his burning throat, coughing from being grabbed around the throat. Donald and Goofy ran over to him and Donald cast a _full Cure_ spell on all of them. Riku cleared his throat and got to his feet, panting for air. "What...what just happened?"

"The Heartless spoke!" Goofy shouted.

"I noticed," Riku massaged his neck.

"But...how?" Donald quacked.

Riku shrugged. "I don't know. But after it did it seemed as if it was loosing strength, that's how it was so easy for me to kill in the end."

"But I don't—"

----------

"—understand. How was it able to talk?" Sora asked.

Mia rid of her keyblade, finished curing all four of them, especially Kairi, who had almost fainted from that spell she used on the Heartless. "Who knows? This place is certainly strange."

-----------

"Sure is." Riku agreed. "We should get moving before something else comes and attacks us."

"Wait," Goofy stopped him before he could walk off, "what did it mean "_Where is the prince?_"?"

-----------

"The Twilight Prince?" Kairi guessed.

"Possibly." Dan allowed. "We should get going before anything else decides to attack."

Sora, Kairi, Mia and Dan all began walking down the rest of the road.

"This is crazy!" The exclamation made the three jump. "The Heartless spoke! _Spoke_. _Heartless_. How is that even possible?!"

----------

"Maybe a new type of species?" Donald offered.

"Great, just what we need." Riku groaned as the three of them made their way through the trees. They then came across something that made them all freeze in their tracks.

"What is _that_?"

----------

"What _is_ that?" Said Sora.

Mia shrugged. "Don't know – by the way, you still owe me that 'logical explanation', Dan."

The guy in question ignored her. "And here I was thinking this place couldn't _get_ any more weird."

Kairi ran up to the thing before anyone could stop her. Standing in front of her was a wooden pole that stood at twice the hight of Kairi. About three quarters of the way up was a plank, its edges cut to the middle to form an arrow that was pointing to further into the woods. Carved into the wood was letters to form the words _Aztec Empire_. To make things even stranger, beyond the post, right into where the arrow was pointing to, was a large door. The door was fairly large and was decorated in some sort of Aztecan pictures. The main part of the door was gold and the border was decorated in red, lama's decorated the corners. Painted on the door in a slightly darker shade of gold was two hills – one larger and taller then the other – with small huts positioned here and there. On one side there was a deep forest that seemed to scream 'death', and on the other side was a large palace in the distance. In the sky were clouds and a large sun in the centre, staring down a the little village.

"What's Aztec Empire?" Kairi asked.

Sora stepped forward, examining the sign and the door. "It sounds like a world name, but not one I've ever heard of before."

Dan and Mia stepped forward. Dan went to the front of the door and Mia to the back. As he examined the front of the door, the elegant design, the beautiful golden colour, Mia examined the back, where all there was was just a plain brown wall.

"It's just a wall!" She called to the others, her voice muffled a bit. Dan shrugged. "Well, then I guess it could do no harm,"

"No, Dan!" Sora yelled, but the boys hand was turning the two knobs on the door before anyone could stop him. Pulling forward, Dan frowned when it didn't budge, and as if on instinct he pushed forward instead. The double doors slowly swung open, and behind it came a brilliant, golden light, shining through warmly to greet them.

"What is it?" Mia asked, moving around to stand beside her friend.

"I don't know..." Dan answered, his voice sounding a little cloudy.

Sora and Kairi both stepped forward, as if some invisible force was pulling them. "It's so beautiful..." Kairi breathed.

"It is..." Sora whispered.

Mia stepped forward and went to touch the light, but stopped half way. "I...I think we should go in..."

"Yeah, we should," Dan agreed, his eyes glazing over and he took one slow, steady step forward. Mia grabbed his wrist, "What if it's dangerous?" Behind her mesmerised whisper lay a hint of worry.

"Does it look dangerous?" Dan pointed to the glow.

Mia's eyes softened and she smiled. "No..." She whispered.

Kairi smiled, too, and grabbed Sora's hand, pulling him toward where Mia and Dan were just about to walk in. "Come on, lets go," She chimed.

"No stopping me," Sora replied. The for then look one last, long look at the beautiful light before stepping through it.

Once they were completely submerged, the doors swung back closed again, the light hidden behind them.

**

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There is the seventeenth chapter! I've never gotten this far in any of my other fics – the longest of them being five short chapters.

**I hope I've left you with a few questions, and I would once again like to thank all the people who are reading and reviewing this story. I means a lot to me! **

**Please review. **

...push the button...you know you want to...

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	18. Aztec Empire

**I wasn't very proud of the last chapter I did, and I don't think that it made vary much sense to the readers either. I don't know, tell me what you think. **

**Enjoy.**

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_Aztec Empire..._

Sora, Kairi, Mia and Dan walked out of the door with a sickening feeling in their stomachs. The four groaned at the same exact moment; Sora and Dan clutched their heads, but Mia and Kairi wrapped their arms around their middles. Mia and Kairi both turned around at just the right moment in time to see the weird French door close, the compelling light being trapped behind it. The door flashed a white light for the shortest second before vanishing from the face of the world in a mass of red and yellow sparks.

Mia closed her eyes and covered her mouth, moaning, "Oh, I think I'm going to be sick,"

"Me too," Kairi went pale and closed her eyes.

Behind them they heard Sora groan. "What the heck just happened?" He questioned with tired eyes.

"I don't know." Mia answered.

"It was like some invisible force was pulling us through the door," Kairi added.

Sora nodded and took a deep breath. When he was sure he wasn't going to throw up, Sora released his throbbing head and opened his eyes, bringing his face up so that he could examine his surroundings. They were all standing at the entrance of what looked like an old Aztec Kingdom. The entrance to markets of some sort was a large, hight arch of finely cut stone. Inside were various stalls with their shop keepers standing loyally behind them, waiting to care for customers and buyers. The high walls were covered with many windows, old and some ripped drapes, rugs and ponchos hung off of thin rope connected from one side of the markets to the other. On the ground, cut into the stone was many doors that looked to be leading up to the apartments that housed various peasants at a time. At the far end was a big stone stair case that led to the top levels of the market, where more shops and stalls were standing. Flooding the area were countless amounts of people. Some had old sacks that they used for bags around their shoulders (mainly the women), and others were holding on tightly to the ropes that they had tied around their llamas, which were pulling carts that were either completely empty, or were stocked with mountain hight piles of sacks, food or items.

Sora ripped his eyes away from the bazaar before him to his friends, and decided to pay attention to the conversation between Mia and Kairi.

"...All I can say is I'm glad to be out of that dead looking place we were just at." Kairi was saying.

"Mmm." Mia agreed. "But it is a shame."

"How?" Sora asked.

"Well, for one I would have liked to know what happened to our Gummi, and what the hell that portal was and how it managed _make_ us go through it and-and those signs!"

Sora nodded, but something else was bugging him. "But what about Riku and Donald and Goofy? What if they are still there? On Broken Kingdom!"

Kairi stepped forward, "Sora, we don't even know if Riku and the others were in that place. They might have just crashed on some other world with the Gummi and are probably out looking for us now. I'm worried too but it's no use jumping to conclusions – we don't know that that place was Bro—"

"Then what was it?" Sora cut her off. "Kairi the appearance of that place fit exactly the description that the king told us! What else would it have been?"

Kairi hesitated. "I don't know—"

"Mia what do you think?" Sora turned to the girl in question, suddenly, and catching her off guard.

"Huh. What?" She said. Mia wasn't listening, she had her arms crossed with one finger under her chin and her head low, eyebrows scrunched together. "Oh, um, yes." She snapped back into reality. "I – I kind of agree with both of you. Even though that world we were just on did match the descriptions of what Broken Kingdom was said to be like, we have no actual proof. Nothing in the stories or books ever mentioned doors and portals like that, signs with world names on them pointing in the right directions – and you have _never_ been this quiet, Dan." Mia suddenly added and whirled around.

Now in front of them they could see Dan crouched down on his knees, his forehead in his hands and rubbing his eyes viscously. The brunette groaned in both annoyance and pain.

"Man, my head." He moaned. "Mia remind me to apologise to all the people I've compelled in my life. I just realise why everybody looks green about five, ten minutes after I've 'talked' to them!" He groaned and rubbed his forehead again. "It's _not_ a very pleasant feeling!"

Mia walked over to Dan and crouched down in front of him, and Sora and Kairi were simply staring.

"What's up with _him_?" Sora pointed.

Mia turned slightly so that she was still facing Dan but now Sora and Kairi, too. "Wellllll," She chuckled nervously. "Compulsion has a sort of – how can I put it? Negative effect on Dan."

"What do you mean?" Sora asked.

"I can't really give you _all_ the details, but in the future, Keybladers have have been given each, um, a _special gift_ – I guess you could call it."

"Gift?" Kairi prompted.

"Yeah. Sort of..." Mia read the curious looks on their faces, and knew from their thoughts that they were about to ask more. But she cut in before they could. "Look, long story short is I can read minds and Dan can compel whoever he wants to do what ever he tells them."

The two teens eyes widened and they both opened their mouths to ask more, but Mia stopped them. "T.M.I – you know what that stands for? To-Much-Information. To much information you are asking for, to much information I can't give you. TMIYAAFTMIICGY. Got it?"

Sora and Kairi both stared at her confusingly. "Um...no."

"Good."

Mia turned back to Dan as he groaned again. "Aw, poor baby." She cooed sarcastically. "It'll wear off in a couple minutes. How 'bout another acronym? W.S.I.C. Know what that means? Want-Some-Ice-Cream?" She laughed at her own joke.

Dan lifted his head out of his hands for the first time and glared at Mia. "S.T.F.H.U, Mia. Know what that means? Shut the – " A nearby llama wailed over Dan's voice " – hell up!" He screamed at her.

Mia only laughed harder until Dan realised something; his brain wasn't threatening to explode any more. Mia giggled and helped him up.

"Better?"

"Yes." He said in a short, quiet tone.

"Maybe we should go into the town," Sora offered. "We might find out a little of where we are."

"Good idea." Kairi agreed.

The four then began walking through the streets of the markets, examining the stalls, the people and the llamas. The group had gone into the bazaar when it was still daytime, but had ended up getting lost in the countless stores and shopkeepers trying to sell them things, and when the group had managed to make it back to near the entrance, it was twilight. What was supposed to be a simply little walk threw the markets had turned into a "Run run run as if your life depends on it!" situation. The four had quickly learned that in this world, the peasants were really – and I mean _really_ – desperate to get even the smallest munny into their pockets. Within one hour the group had a whole storm of people chasing after them (Sora counted at least fifty). Finally, when they felt their lungs about to burst and their legs to run away with out them, they all stopped in the middle of the square, panting and gasping for air after running away from the many desperate business people. All in all, it had certainly been a full afternoon. Sora stood up to his full posture again after a few minutes of feeling as though he was about to keel over and die, and sighed in relief.

"Well, I think we finally lost them all – AHHHH!!" Sora screamed and jumped back as some random old lady jumped out of thin air – _seriously_ – staring at the poor boy with a crazed expression on her face. The exclamation made the other three jump.

"Ah, customers!" The lady croaked, in a struggling, high voice. "I've been chasing you kiddies all afternoon! Now I've finally got you!" The gypsy looking lady smiled.

Sora's eyes widened in fear. The last guy that had tried to sell them something had all his merchandise inside a single poncho. When he ripped it off of him to show them all the nick-knacks he had, they all found out the hard way about just _how_ poor some of the people in this place really are. So their they were, standing in front of a but-naked man, with the girls shrieking and running away. The boys had spent the good part of an hour just trying to find them after that.

Dan put one hand on his hip and the other pinched the bridge of his nose. "There's a _reason_ people like you shouldn't be allowed speak, Sora!"

"Yahh!" The woman cried, making Sora jump out of his skin. "You seem like a nice boy – nice enough to not deprive a little old lady like me the time left I have on this world without food, shelter..."

Sora's eyes softened, his heart sinking. Dan frowned and stood behind Sora, making an effort to pull him away. "Don't buy it, Sora. It's just some double-crossed charity slander. That's probably just a kid under all those ponchos and mask."

Sora kept staring into the little old lady's eyes and tried to pull away. Dan just grabbed his shoulder again. "Come on," He hissed. "Does that really look like real wrinkles to you?"

Sora tried to shrug away again, with no prevail. He tilted his head to one side, and had to admit that the skin did look a little fake...

The old woman whimpered. "Oh, even just one little coin would do so much. Please, sir, I have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren – not to mention a lazy husband who doesn't even bother to help around the HOUSE ONCE AND A WHI—" her voice deepened, sounding healthier and stronger before she stopped, taking in the four's confused and slightly frightened expressions, cleared her throat and continued. "Uh, yes – and great grandchildren! And we all share one little room in one little hut!"

Dan pulled again, "Sora lets go!"

The old woman smiled up at Sora and reached behind her, pulling out one green and blue flower that looked like something crossed between an orchid and a lily. The stem was a beautiful chartreuse colour, with light and dark sapphire orchids attached for leaves. The actual flower part of it was both emerald and cerulean, changing into sapphire on the edges. Three perfect looking stigmas shot out of the centre like a fountain – the whole flower seemed to be glowing!

Everyone froze, and Sora felt something in his pocket grow hot. Behind him Sora heard someone gasp right before he found Mia and Kairi standing beside him.

"Sora!" Kairi shouted. "Your pocket!"

Mia quickly reached into Sora's pocket, and before he could protest she ripped the tracking device out of it. Sora simply stared at the thing. With all that happened he had completely forgotten about the little red ruby. Even though Dan said that they were extremely fragile, it didn't even seem to have a scratch on it. Mia held it up showing, much to everyone's surprise, it was glowing bright green.

"It's a Menka flower!" Mia and Dan shouted.

Dan shook his head unbelievably before stepping forward. "How much is that?"

"Oh, so now you want to buy somethin', do you?"

He nodded sheepishly.

The lady hesitated for a while, before finally answering, "25."

Sora's eyes widened and he smiled, "25 _cents_?! That's great! We'll take it!"

The old lady stared at the boy for some moments before throwing her head back and laughing.

"What?" Kairi asked in a puzzled tone.

"Oh, you make me laugh, deary! Silly boy! Not 25 _cents_, 25 _dollars_!"

"WHAT?!" Sora cried. "That much for one little flower?!"

She wagged the flower in the air tauntingly. "That's the price, son. Take it or leave it."

The brunette groaned before reaching into his pocket and, after digging around for a good 60 seconds (handing a dozen random pieces of junk to Dan that God only knows what was doing in there) Sora finally handed 25 munny to the old lady. As soon as the munny landed in the woman's hand, her eyebrows knitted together and her overall expression turned into one of confusion and slight annoyance.

"_What_ is _this_?" She spat, dropping the "old lady" character and holding the little coins at a distance.

Mia tilted her head, "Uhh. 25 bucks?"

The woman scoffed and threw the coins back at Sora. "Well what use do I have with those?! I'd be lucky to get even a piece of skin off of a chicken wing with _that_! I don't know what world you kids are from, but only Kuzcoins are accepted around here!"

"_Kuzcoins_?" Kairi repeated.

"Yeah, I guess they're _like _your money, but made of solid gold with the face of our Emperor Kuzco on them."

Mia pulled them all aside, "Guys, if we can see this Emperor Kuzco then we might be one step closer to finding the others. We can ask him for help to get off this world."

Kairi nodded. "Good idea. But what if he refuses to help us?"

"Look around. All these people here seem to adore him. I'm sure he's a nice guy! We just need a convincing enough story."

"I'm sure that if we just give him a detailed recount of our last couple of days should pass as a convincing story enough." Dan concluded.

Sora nodded. From the corner of his eye he could see the lady getting impatient. "But what about the flower?"

"She's obviously not going to take anything we offer her." Kairi said.

"And we really need that flower! The sooner we get it the sooner we complete our quest."

Dan nodded, stepping out of the huddle. "Leave it to me."

He was about to walk to the woman before a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "You're not going to use compulsion, are you?" Mia asked.

"Are you kidding me? My skull's still jumping like a jack rabbit during Easter. No, no. I don't need compulsion."

He approached the lady, who was tapping her foot impatiently, and said, "Can I see that?"

The woman shrugged before handing him him the box, which he inspected briefly before asking, "This Emperor Kuzco, he lives...where?"

The lady rolled her eyes, "The palace, duh."

"Right, right. And where would that be?"

"Over that way." She pointed to the other end of the markets, before adding, "But good luck trying to get in. The palace is surrounded by hundreds of guards, and the Emperor usually stops taking visitors at this time in the afternoon."

"Ok," Dan stared at where she pointed with his arms crossed and a confused look on his face. "You said that way? Because before I asked a couple of other people and they told us that the Palace was due south, not north." He pointed to the gates where they came from.

"Well then they're wrong." She said. "The palace is and has always been positioned at the north of the Empire, where the Sun is."

"That's what I thought at first but now after thinking about it I really do think -" he put an arm around the lady, turning her to the other direction "- that south would be a better location. Are you sure it's not _that_ way?"

The woman blinked at him once, twice before spurting, "Are you stupid or something?" She turned to the others, "Is he stupid?"

"Ha." Dan ignored Sora and pulled the lady back around. "No really, these people had a point. Somethin' 'bout hills singing – I wasn't really listening – but about the alignment of the sun and the moon – I think I have a compass somewhere..." Dan rambled off and began searching his pockets, pulling out many random things (three quarters courtesy of Sora) and handing them to the lady, soon making her hands full. The lady kept on complaining about the guys mental state until Dan finally began running out of things to give her. He never actually pulled out a compass.

"Well I could have sworn I had one on me... Mind if I check if you do?" He didn't let the woman answer, walking straight to her brown sack of a bag on her back and attempting to open in, instead pulling the wrong clasp and causing to whole thing to plummet to the ground, all her other flowers and merchandise was sprawled on the stone floor under them. The woman shrieked in horror.

"Ah! My flowers! What are you trying to do?!" She bent to retrieve her things but couldn't because of the arm full Dan gave her.

"I – I'm so sorry, I was just trying to – here I'll take those back." Dan took all the things he gave her out of her hands and dumped them on the ground next to him, bent down and helped the woman, throwing out dozens of messy apologies. "Let me help you,"

"I've got it, thanks." she said all but kindly. She snorted, "And _you_ want to have an audience with the Emperor? Ha! Good luck. He'll probably have you thrown out the window."

The lady finally rounded up all her things back into the bag and stood up, clearly eager to get away from the boy. "I – I really am sorry. I was an accident. Here, you probably want this back." Dan handed her back the rectangular cardboard box...the one with the flower in it!

Sora, Kairi and Mia's jaws all dropped, not believing what he was doing. The lady snatched the box off of him with a sharp, "Thanks." and walked away muttering something about being "crazy".

Dan tuned back around to face the three before Mia pounced. "What the hell!"

"What was that?!" Sora yelled.

"You said leave it to you!" Kairi added.

Dan only held up one finger and smiled smugly at them, and reached down out of the pile to pull out another box. He opened it to reveal the Menka flower laying cozy and snug in the box, glowing brightly.

All three were flabbergasted and at a loss for words.

Dan winked, closing the lid. "And that, kiddos, is how it's done." He flipped the box in the air once before handing it to Sora. "There are only two types of ways to get something from a person. One: you can compel them. Or two: you can irritate of freak them out so much that they can't wait to get away from you – which gives you a great opportunity to snatch something off them."

"He's good." Kairi concluded quietly to Mia.

"He's Danniel. He is good at _everything_." Mia corrected dryly.

Sora grinned and slipped the box with the flower in it inside his pocket, and was shocked to find that – just like his last garments – these too had bottomless pockets. "Oh, ok. Cool."

"So, now all we have to do is find the Emperor and – "

"It's him! Quick! Get him before he gets away!" Sora's sentence was cut short on the account of two guards in the distance shouting, the leader pointing straight at Sora. Sora was stunned, watching the five HUGE guards, wearing only knee length red and yellow pieces of cloth that looked like skirts (A/N: I don't know their name), with half of their masculine body painted in blue paint. The other half was red. Each of them also seemed to be carrying long stick the reached just above their heads, with silver and gold metal sharpened into three points on either end.

Before any of them knew it all five of the large men pounced on Sora, four each holding either an arm or leg, with the fifth trying to block Kairi, Mia and Dan off.

"Hey! Lemme go!" Sora yelled.

The guards paid no mind to the boy. The leader extended his arm, the spear toward Sora, "Take him to the dungeon. Inform the Emperor!"

"Let _go_!" Sora made to slip out of the men's grasp but they were too strong for him.

Kairi frowned and summoned her flowery blade, slamming the handle into the side of the leader's skull, instantly sending him unconscious. Mia and Dan did the same, shocking the other four guards into loosening their grip on Sora. The latter took this as the opportunity to escape. Sora slammed his elbow into the ribs of one of the guardsmen and instantly winding him, causing the man to let go of Sora's arm. Sora, with his hand free, was now able to summon his Keyblade. The boy swung Eclipse around in his hand, landing a blow on each of the guards left. The impact from the blade made them all let go and caused Sora to plummet to the ground under him, landing on the stone hard.

Sora barely had time to recover before the guards were on them again. One of them swung his spear at Kairi, which the girl blacked without struggle. The guard swung again, this time lunging the point at her stomach, but the girl quickly jumped out of the way and sent her Keyblade flying back and ended up slashing the guard across his deltoid. The man responded to this with more force then before, this time swinging his weapon at Kairi's legs. The wood clashed with Kairi's ankle and kept going – slamming into the other one before she actually hit the ground. Kairi landed on the ground with a _**thump **_and above her she could see the strangely dressed guard holding his spear above his head, ready to slam it down and pierce her straight through the stomach. Before he could do this, Kairi raised her Keyblade to the guard and shouted a quick "Fira!" before a bright orange flame burst from the tip of the nose, sending the man propelling through the air and landing painfully on the stone steps of the markets.

Mia swung her Keyblade at the guard stopping his spear from touching her and made to knock it out of his hands. The man almost lost his grip on the wooden rod, but quickly grabbed it again with in two fingers, a trick which can take years to master, and sent it back on Mia, slashing the girl across the arm. Mia gasped in pain for a second before catching herself and lunged her blade back at the man. He jumped out of the way just in time before she could cause any teal damage on him – only getting a small gash across the upper abdominal – and swung his spear at Mia's back. The girl spun around and blocked the attack, flipped her blade and smashed the handle into his ribs before kicking his spear away. The man went to punch the girl but Mia ducked just in time and shot back up at the speed of lightning, slamming the hilt of her weapon into his jaw before crashing her foot into his stomach. The man staggered backward and bashed into the cart of a nearby pedestrian, knocking himself out.

The third guard swing his fist at Dan, who skidded out of the way and jumped in the air when the man swung his spear at his legs. Dan, holding his blade in one hand, swung it at the guard and gashed him across the chest. The man looked shocked for only a second before launching his blade at Dan. Dan quickly moved to the side, but the blade managed to slash him mildly across the jaw. The boy grunted from the impact before lunging again, but the guard quickly dodged the attack, spun around with his spear heading toward Dan. In a move that would have taken years to master, Dan brought his Keyblade to lay flat across his chest and arched his body back. The guard's spear swiped above the boy, missing his body by the smallest inch. When the spear was directly above his head Dan allowed himself to fall further back, lifting his Keyblade up and knocking the spear out of the man's hand. Touching the ground under him he kicked his legs up so that they collided hard with the guards chin. The guard grunted before falling to the ground, unconscious, as Dan flipped the rest of the way over and landed back on his feet.

Sora blocked the spear that was threatening to cut his body in two, getting back to his feet and pushing it to the side with his Keyblade in attempt to knock it out of his hands. The guard, however, held his grip and swung it back at Sora, who ducked out of the way and struck the man in the chest with his weapon. The guard grunted in pain. Seeing this moment of weakness Sora flipped his Keyblade around to get a better hold and lunged again, only this time the guard lifted his spear to block _his_ attack. They stood there pushing their weapons against each other for a few moments before the guard lifted his spear, taking Sora's Keyblade with him and punched the boy in the stomach. Sora staggered back, coughing with no more air in him. The man raised his spear before the point of the lance smashed down, cutting into the stone ground where Sora's head was moments before. Sora rolled on the ground before kicking himself up to his feet. Still slightly winded, the spiky haired boy pointed the nose of his blade at the man, shouting a quick, "_Aero_!" before watching the man be blown backward by a gust of wind. Sora tuned around just in time to see Dan do a backward somersault and knock his opponent out with on kick.

"Whoa," Sora said, once Dan was back on his feet. "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"Later." Dan pointed to the distance and all four of them turned to see a a villager talking to a bigger group of guards before turning and pointing at the four of them.

"I think we should leave," Mia said quickly. "Now!"

Kairi, Dan and Mia ran off, but Sora noticed a rolled up piece of parchment laying next to the lead guard. Curious, Sora bent and picked the paper up and pocketed it before charging after his friends to the exit of the markets. The four had managed to get to the gates – dodging many obstacles and knocking over many stalls on the way – without being caught by the guards. The group we allowed two seconds to catch their breath before they herd the angry cries of the guardsmen and gunned it the rest of the way down the street.

When the group finally stopped it was at a fork in the road. They all staggered and stumbled into a drunken stop, bent over, panting for air to once again engulf their lungs. After a few minutes the four had finally regained themselves and began to argue about which direction to go. Well, Mia and Dan argued. Sora and Kairi watched in wonder. Sora suddenly remembered the parchment he took from the markets and pulled it out of his pocket, inspecting the sepia tint.

"What's that?" Kairi asked, noticing the paper.

Sora shrugged, "I dunno. It was laying next to the lead guard so I just took it. I don't know why, I felt like I had to..." Sora trailed off into a whisper.

"That's strange," She said, moving closer. "You gonna open it?"

Sora hesitated for a moment, still not completely recovered from the half a ten mile sprint, before slowly unrolling the sepia parchment. When the paper was fully unrolled, Sora stopped breathing – Kairi, too. Ahead Dan and Mia had broken off from their bellowing and were staring at the two teens who were now deathly silent.

"What? What is it?" Mia walked forward.

Sora, still in shock, turned the paper around to show them a black and white Wanted poster with a drawing of Sora's face in the middle. Mia's eyes widened, "A Wanted poster?" She almost yelled.

Dan snatched the paper off Sora. "Not only a Wanted poster, but a bounty, too." His eyes then went wide when he saw the price. "Whoa! One mill!"

Kairi then took the parer off Dan. "It even has an appearance description: from hair and eye colour right down to what you're wearing."

"How?!" Sora exclaimed. "Who made this and how do they know so much about me?!" The brunette's eyes scanned over all the words: from hight, to weight, to age, and over the detailed sketch of his crown pendent.

"That's why those guards were after you before!" Kairi broke the news.

Dan shifted his weight, "Well, whoever's in charge of this is very powerful, meaning that now we have to watch our backs for more then just Heartless, Nobodies and Ghosts. Many worlds – like this one – have a lot of bounty hunters running around."

"Great." Sora breathed, snatching the paper off the other boy and pocketing it as fast as lightning.

Mia turned back around, "Well, apart from that we still have the decision of which way to go. We cant go back that way – of course – which rules out any chance of getting to the Palace and talking to the Emperor. So which way?"

Kairi was about to suggest an idea moments before her eyes caught sight of a group of guards coming down the path on the right, and quickly zapped over to the left. "This way. We should go this way."

"Why?"

"Because of that!" The three turned to see the men heading toward them and ran straight down the opposite path.

-----------

"Sora it's your turn."

"Ok. Uuumm, I spy with my little eye something beginning with... T."

"A tree." Came a _very_ droned voice from beside Sora.

Sora snapped his fingers of his knee, looking chest fallen, "Man you're good at this. That's, what, the seventh time, Dan! How do you know what I'm thinking?"

The guy in question stared at Sora with an "are you serious?" look before throwing his arms up beside his body, gesturing to endless ocean of green around them. "Because it's all that's here!" His arms dropped. "That and you're just incredibly predictable."

Sora growled, "Yeah, well, _you're_ incredibly predictable!"

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"You know what else doesn't make any sense? You!"

Dan snorted. "Seriously, dude, get some new comebacks." And walked away to where Kairi and Mia were strolling.

Sora rolled his eyes and muttered something incomprehensible under his breath.

"This jungle is really creepy..." Kairi commented up ahead, fear in her voice. The jungle they were now walking in was dark, cold and they could hear creepy sounds coming from the distance, with random bushes and leaves shaking for no apparent reason at all.

"Think about it this way," Mia began as the group climbed over a large bolder, "I could be worse."

"How?"

"Well, it could be raining – " As soon as the auburn haired girl said the word, the entire leafy labyrinth lit up a bright yellowy light and the splitting crackly of thunder pulsed their ears. Heartbeats later they were all covered in rain.

Dan slapped his forehead, "You just _had_ to say it, didn't you?!" he screamed through the loud beating of the poring rain.

"This _always_ happens!" Mia scolded herself, spitting out water when it fell in her mouth.

"Then why did you say it?!" Sora asked (yelled).

"Because I was hoping I'd get lucky this time!" The girl replied, pouting to herself. Sora groaned when he had to contently rub his eyes to rid of the contents that flew inside them on the account of the heavy rain and wind. "This is worse then monsoon season on Destiny Islands," The Keyblade master mumbled to himself. Not knowing how, soon after Mia and Dan were engaged in another argument, leaving Kairi to simply stare at them with wonder.

Something in the distance then caught Sora's eyes, and the boy stiffened where he stood, his eyes wide and hand moving to summon his Keyblade. "Uh, guys?"

The three in front took no notice of Sora. "Guys,"

Still nothing. "...this is all your fault!"

"_How_ is it my fault..."

"Guys,"

"...fine then, maybe I should just leave you to take care of yourself..."

"...maybe you should..."

"...give me one good reason why..."

"Guys,"

"...not like I can control the weather..."

"Guys!"

"...you are _so_ stubborn..."

"_Me_?!"

"Guys!"

"...you're the reason we're in this mess..."

"...I didn't lead us here..."

"Guys!"

"Go to hell."

"You first."

"Guys!"

"Why did Master Rei have to stick me with you?"

"Feelings mutual."

"_Hey,_" This was getting ridiculous.

"Basted."

"Bitch."

"GUYS!!"

"WHAT?!?!" Mia and Dan both screamed at Sora, finally breaking off from their meaningless bellowing to look at him. Sora frowned as Kairi continued to stare amazingly. "_Well, they both sure are very...colourful._"

"_You're telling me._" A little voice at the very back of Kairi's mind agreed.

Sora growled through the still poring rain. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with J."

Dan sighed, "The Jungle."

"No." Sora answered stepping aside to give them a full line view of a group of black forms in the distance. "_That_."

Just then, as if the entire universe and both heaven and hell were against them, the rain stopped. The entire jungle went silent and still, allowing the group of black panthers in the distance to loo up into the now clear air and see the four teens standing in the most open spot in the entire rainforest. Half of the group of inky cats didn't actually look anything like 'cats' at all. Across their backs were patches of red, black and blue. Their legs were the same shade of jet, with the exception of their paws, that were half read and half blue. To complete Sora's suspicion the cats had large, glowing yellow eyes and a small Heartless symbol on each of their tails.

"Sora that's a panther not a jaguar." Dan hissed through non moving lips.

Both breeds of cats, upon seeing the four teens, growled, hissed and bore their teeth, their paws scratching at the grass and dirt bellow them, arching their backs and preparing to pounce. Mia, despite being ready to rip his head off with her teeth thirty seconds ago, took a slow and shaky step toward Dan, just as Kairi slowly reached forward and laced her shaky fingers around Sora's wrist. The panthers and Heartless Panthers growled again before roaring loudly. This was enough to make the two girls jump.

Dan spoke slowly, "Nobody move."

"AAHHHHH!!" A scream erupted from the left. What looked like a llama came charging into the section, its four legs beating clumsily against the ground in a desperate attempt to escape the countless mass of black cats chasing him – half of them Heartless. The four followed the animal with their heads, shocked to find that it was in fact the llama that was crying out. Both humans and cats stared after the spot where the llama disappeared in the trees, before a tiny little baby panther pounced into the clearing, chasing after the grown ups with a high-pitched "_Rrawr_!".

Both groups looked back at each other at the exact same time. The four huffed into grins and timid chuckles, their expressions reading "nice kitty", before the panthers eyes grew ferocious and they roared twice as loudly as before.

"RUN!" Sora cried before they all dashed off into the trees, the panthers and Heartless pouncing after them.

_**

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To Be Continued...

**I hope you enjoyed that chapter. I don't like cliff hangers as much as you, but this chapter was getting a bit too long and I REEEALLY wanted to update. **

**Yay! Holidays! That means that I might be able to update more frequently! **_**[Aside]**_**That is, if I can find a new charger for my laptop...**

**Anyhoo, Please review.**

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	19. King Of The Llamas

**Hey, me again! Yeah so I'll just cut straight to the chapter now. **

**Enjoy!**

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A soft, quiet breeze travelled all around the damp rainforest, the after effects of the storm that had just passed was becoming near unnoticeable. Leaves of all colours, shapes and sizes rattled as the temperate wind washed over them, the quiet and almost silent rustle was all the sound the radiated in the deep jungle. The vegetation cast inky shadows over the jungle floor and others of its own family, the only light that illuminated over the rainforest; the near invisible setting sun in the distance.

All was peaceful in the jungle, getting ready to say goodbye to the day and the sun, and greet hello to the moon, waiting for the dark blankets to be laid over them so that they may retire to the night and go to sleep.

The forest was in no mood to be disturbed, and would not take lightly to some rude and inconsiderate animals to come charging through its home just before nightfall, roaring and growling loudly as they pounced and chased their pray, watching them sprint for their lives for escape or any sort of refuge – and _they_ weren't any more considerate then their chasers, either.

The sun, as if sensing this disturbance to the balance of the leafy city below, sent annoyed red rays over the entire land under it; the hills, city, jungles and the enormous interestingly shaped palace that outshined the entire empire.

The chase-ees below had to fight to keep their footing at the pace they were going – almost gliding through the air – as they ducked under teal leaves that stretched out half their size, jumped over large rocks and log sized tree roots sticking out of the dirt, around palms and other jungle animals that simply stared in awe of the scene before them, and were hardly any threat to the retreating five.

One of the retreaters in particular snapped his hand out in front of him, a flash of golden/white light sparking to life moments before a weapon appeared in his hand; a long golden thing with a sun and moon at the tip. The boy turned for the shortest second and whipped his blade at the animals behind him, expelling a brilliant blue light out from the sun and moon. The blue morphed into a diamond crystal and clashed with one of the multicoloured cats chasing them. The semi-animal froze in place, the crystal expanding over its body before exploding; sending the creature back to the home it strutted out of.

The other three humans responded to this, getting the idea and summoning weapons of their own, firing them at the cats behind them. This went on for some minutes, with dozens of colours blasting through the air and colliding with the Heartless. If the first attack didn't get them then the second, third or fourth did the trick. The fourth member of the sprinting group was in fact a llama – a strange llama at that – whom would turn his head behind him every now and again to inspect just what the heck was happening!

This almost made him run off the narrow edge of a cliff that he didn't even see in front of him. The llama slid to a sudden and too-close-for-comfort stop, with the other four soon after – almost making them topple then.

The five slowly turned around to see the regular Back Panthers and Heartless Panthers meters in front of them, their backs arched, teeth clenched and wide, eyes filled with rage; ready to pounce. Out of the paws of the growling jungle cats jumped a baby cub, fur fluffed, tiny claws out and mouth wide as it growled out a small, high pitched and totally non threatening "Rawr!".

"Soooo…now what?" The – wait for it – _llama_ asked in a frightened tone yet still filled with an ounce of attitude. The four teenagers were only allowed to stare in wonder for the smallest second before a battle cry echoed over the hills and trench around them. Both humans and animals turned their heads to the side to see a man clad in a green poncho and hat swinging on a single vine heading toward them.

The man expanded their confusion like gas over an open flame when he outstretched his arm and yelled out, "Don't worry, your highness! I'll save you!" The llama, as if suspecting the men was talking to him, turned back to the panthers with a smug smile on his face. The smile, unfortunately, was wiped out when the man came swinging right past the edge of the cliff, missing by mere inches and kept on swinging, this time yelling in fright.

One of the humans simply stared into the distance with his dark eyebrows knitted together strangely. "O-key…"

The llama, his eyes once again flooded with fear, turned back to the panthers when they once again resumed their growling.

Without warning the man with the vine collided with the llama and swept him of the edge, taking a flabbergasted red-head and chestnut haired boy with them. As the peasant, llama, Sora and Kairi glided through the air, the two remaining boy and girl still on the cliff were left to stare in wonder. Just as they were about to shout out "What about us?!" they both felt something tugging at their ankles and looked down to see vines attached to one leg of both of them.

The two managed to utter one phrase before they were pulled off the edge of the cliff and surging through the open air; "Uh-oh."

The llama was still screaming in fright in the man's arms, kicking with wide eyes as he gazed down bellow from the great height they were at, leaving the poncho-wearing peasant to shout out through a mouth that was pulled into a reassuring smile "It's ok, your highness, I got cha! You're safe now!".

His glee was short lived when the next thing the four knew they were spinning around and around at the speed of sound before stopping violently, realising they were tied to a fat tree branch. The man was positioned at the top of the branch, facing the sky, while the llama was directly opposite, staring into the near bottomless chasm, with the two kids below hanging upside-down and trying to prevent from clashing their heads again. Sora and Kairi's situation was the most interesting. Kairi had her back against the hard wood with Sora pressed against her, the thick vine securing them both in place and their faces inches apart. The two's eyes widened when they noticed their positions, a slow, red blush emerging on both of their cheeks.

A voice from around the log woke them up. "Maybe I'm just new to this whole rescuing thing, but this, to me..." Sora strained his neck far enough to see that it was the llama talking, "might be considered kind of a step backwards, wouldn't you say?"

"No, no, no. It's-its okay. This-this is all right. We can figure this out."

The man's confident tone was shattered when the branch gave one deathly and bone chilling _**crack**_ sound, the whole thing jolting downward.

"I hate you."

With one final crack the entire branch gave way and the group went plummeting to the water below them with screams of fright. The long fall ended with a _**splash**_, the log hovering underwater for some moments before finally bursting through to the surface and allowing the four to take a long, awaited breath.

This was short lived when a mini-fall caught Kairi's eye. The girl had enough time to shout "Incoming!" before they went over the edge of the small slope. The log spun around in circles as it fell over each and every fall they came across. Sora and Kairi both shut their eyes tight when they spotted large rocks sticking out of the water or rock walls around them, but each time they were near one it missed them completely. A series of "OW"s or "Oomph"s could be heard from around the log, seeming as the rocks only ever hit the llama. The water ride lasted only a moment longer before they fell over the edge of yet another water fall – only bigger.

"Aahhhh!"

The four bobbed there in the water, gasping and coughing and spitting out any water that had landed in their mouths after the fall, and gently drifted along with the easy current. Sora finally opened his eyes to examine his surroundings. Under him Kairi still had her eyes shut tight, but opened them when Sora asked her if she was ok.

"Yeah," She breathed, still breathless and still blushing slightly from being this close. "I'm fine. You?"

"A little wet but what can you do?" Kairi had to smile at his small attempt of humour.

Behind them something burst from the water, followed by another, coughing and gasping for air. It took Sora and Kairi a moment to realise it was Dan and Mia. The two had somehow found a log to keep at float on, each of them hanging on to either end. A small wave created by the large log caused Mia's hand to slip and she almost went under again. Dan noticed this and quickly went to sling an arm around her waist, pulling her up. Although, his hand had accidentally landed a little lower then he intended, causing Mia to yelp and straighten up.

"Hey! Watch the hand, bub!" She shouted.

"I was just trying to help!"

"Well try less!"

Up ahead Sora and Kairi both groaned at the same time. "God do they ever stop?!" Sora groaned.

"Hey, you two! Lovebirds cut the chit-chat. I'm trying to be melodramatic here!" The voice of the llama boomed through the roar of the rushing water from the falls behind them.

Sora looked at the talking animal as he was trying to flip long black hair out of his eyes and spoke again, his speech directed to the man. "I don't know about you, but I'm getting all _funned_ _out_."

"Um, excuse me…" Sora struggled for the right words, "Mr Llama, but there's been a question bugging me from the cliff: How can you talk?!"

"Well, kid," He answered in an all but enthusiastic tone, "that's because I'm not a llama at all! I was just a normal human, just like you – well maybe not exactly like you. I'm a little _higher up_. But then this-this _peasant_—" he spat the word "—kidnapped me and turned me into a llama!"

"Oh for pete sake, once again why would I kidnap a _llama_?!"

"I have no idea! _You're_ the criminal mastermind, not me!" He turned his head away in a sort of "Humph" motion. "There has to be some kind a law against kidnapping the Emperor, isn't there?" He meant it only for himself, but Sora and Kairi heard it.

"What?!" Kairi gasped. "You're Emperor Kuzco?!"

"Yah. Me." Said Kuzco. "And now I have witnesses for when I take you to court, Patchy, and sue you for everything you own – which probably isn't much at all!"

"It's _Pacha_!" Was all the man yelled back. Sora was about to say how they couldn't really be witnesses because they never saw him as a human when Kairi stiffened.

"Uh-oh." Pacha's eyes went wide, too, when he noticed this.

Facing the opposite direction, Kuzco spoke in quite a calm tone, "Don't tell me. We're about to go over a huge waterfall."

"Yep." Pacha answered.

"Sharp rocks at the bottom?"

"Most likely." Said Sora.

"Bring it on."

"Wait! Bring what on?!" Mia yelled from afar.

Sora tuned to her and Dan. "Brace yourselves!" The brunette had just enough time to finish that sentence before their log disappeared over the edge of the largest waterfall he has ever seen. Cries of fright echoed all around the valley, with only one voice amidst the others crying out in delight. When the log finally landed at the bottom of the fall, the impact of the water was enough to smash the log into a dozen pieces, releasing them from the hold of the vines. The four scattered around in the pool, separate waves carrying each of them. Sora broke through the surface coughing and spiting out water, moments before Kairi splashed out. With a gasp for air the girl began whipping her head from side to side and wiping the flooding moisture from her eyes. When Sora noticed this he kicked himself upward and began swimming over to Kairi just as Pacha broke to the surface as well.

"Kairi! Are you ok?" The red head nodded in response and began swimming out of the water and to the land.

Pacha was about to follow soot and swim to land when he noticed Kuzco splash out of the water, unconscious. "Ah!" Pacha quickly made for the llama as he began sinking again and grabbed him just in time before he went completely under. Once they were to the edge of the water Pacha ragged Kuzco onto the little land.

When Kairi heard a small scream erupt from above she turned back to the waterfall just in time to see Mia crash into the water, followed by Dan moments later. The two broke to the surface at the same time and began helping each other to land – with Dan muttering something about how he's always hated fish and Mia looking…quite happy.

When the two reached the others they both bent over and leaned on their knees for support while they ran after their breath. Dan straightened up first. Feeling something in his jacket pocket, the raven haired boy reached in, his eyebrows knitted in confusion, and pulled out a little fidgeting fish. Dan groaned something before sending the fish over his shoulder and back to the bank.

When Mia straightened up – surprising everybody – she laughed and said, "That…was actually quite fun."

Kairi sent her an "are you insane?!" look. "What?" Mia protested.

Back with Pacha and Kuzco, the peasant was making an attempt to wake the unconscious Emperor up, "Your Highness. Your Highness, can you hear me?".

When Kuzco didn't respond Pacha braced himself before slowly opening Kuzco's mouth. Once it was open completely all of a sudden the llama's tongue shot out of his mouth and plopped to the side.

Pacha flinched back and made a sound of disgust, before looking upward and asking, "Oh, why me?". After a deep breath Pacha gazed back down to the sleeping emperor. "All right…"

When Pacha began slowly moving toward Kuzco, Mia noticed that the llama had started to stir. She inched her palms forward in a sort of "stop" notion, but before she could utter another word it was too late. Seconds after Kuzco's eyes began to flutter open, and when realization hit they opened wide and he cried out in shock. Pacha, finally realising that the emperor was awake shot backwards with an outcry and the two jolted away from each other like they were hit by lightning.

Mia sighed, "I tried to warn ya." Although her voice went unheard by the llama and man on the account of them wiping their mouths and gagging over dramatically. The two then stoped and slowly turned around to the other, only to gag and whip their heads away again.

The over all awkwardness of the situation didn't get any better when Sora and Mia both said the same thing, "Gross."

---------------

"For the last time, it was not a kiss." Pacha repeated an hour later for about the millionth time. After the little event earlier, the group had decided to make camp beside the water fall, since it was already dark. After all the introductions were passed around, Sora and Pacha disappeared into the jungle for about twenty minutes, returning with handfuls of fire wood for the night. Kairi and Mia had somehow found half a dozen blankets left behind from an old campsite some way into the trees, and were laying them down on the ground as make shift beds for everyone. Dan was using his Keyblade to try and catch fish for the six to eat, and after a good half-an-hour he returned with a handful of at least a dozen fish. All this happened while Kuzco simply laid there on the ground, grovelling in his own self pity and was gargling some water in his mouth.

"Well, whatever you call it," Kuzco got up and walked over to where Sora and Pacha were trying to start separate fires, "It was still-" without warning the llama spat out the water in his mouth, it landing perfectly in Pacha's heap of wood " –disgusting."

Pacha balled his fists together in anger when Kuzco extinguished the tiny little flame he had finally managed to create. Pacha was using two sticks, scraping one against the other to start the fire, but was never able to get it right. Sora's methods were a little different. He used no sticks but kept both his palms raised gently over the top of the fire, trying to start the flame that way. The spiked haired boy had gotten a few sparks every now and again, but so far no fire.

Mia and Kairi were sitting at the far end of the camp site, engaged in some conversation. In order for their clothes to dry and not freeze to death, both had taken their shoes off and were now sitting at the edge of the grass to dry. Kairi had removed her jacket and belt and were now lying next to her shoes. Mia had removed her gloves, sleeves and white tank top, so that she were sitting there fiddling with her gray singlet that had become very itchy due to the dampness. After a good fifteen minutes of attempting to rip her hair elastic that was trapped underneath tangled locks (courtesy of the water) out so that it could dry, she lost her patience and decided to just pull as hard and fast as she can. It now hung around her waist in messy damp strands.

Pacha had also removed his hat and poncho – which Kuzco was now using as a towel to dry his fur – now sitting in a simple white T-shirt and brown shorts. Sora had taken off his vest, shoes and gloves, which were now sitting in a messy pile next to Mia and Kairi's neat ones. Dan was sitting cross-legged next to Sora, wiping his damp hair with his jacket – which was soaking wet from when he tripped over his feet trying to catch a fish, his boots also down with the rest, and was waiting for somebody to get the fire starting already so that he could cook the fish! (As if his Keyblade didn't fry them enough).

"I think I saw a spark," Dan randomly said. The glare that he received from Sora was powerful enough to make him shut up straight away and hold his palms us in a "surrender" pose. After a few more minutes of waiting Dan became impatient stood up to go lay on one of the blankets the girls had laid out, tossing his jacket to the ground beside him and not noticing when it landed directly on top of Sora's pile of wood, extinguishing a small flame that he finally managed. Sora growled in frustration and threw Dan's jacket to the side.

"And if you would've done what I ordered you to do in the first place," Kuzco continued, "we all could've been spared your little "kiss of life"." Kuzco picked Pacha's poncho up again and wrapped it around his head, taking it off moments later to reveal a mass of fluffed up black hair. With his teeth, Kuzco threw the green cloth to the side where it landed on Pacha's small flame.

The peasant groaned and hung the poncho to dry on a near by tree.

"But now that you're here, you will take me back to the palace." The llama ordered, slumping down on the ground and gathering a few pebbles. "I'll have Yzma change me back, and then I'll start construction on Kuzcotopia. Oh yeah!" He shoved a little leaf in the middle of he pile.

Kairi and Mia had broken off from their previous conversation, and were now listening intently. Sora was vaguely paying attention, focusing everything on the little log in front of him as it started to smoke and spark.

Pacha sighed, "Okay, now look. I think we got off on the wrong foot here." He said, "I just think if you really thought about it…you'd decide to build your home on a different hilltop."

Kuzco huffed, "And why would I do that?" Without warning the Emperor turned llama shock is body like a dog, causing all the remaining droplets of water to spray all over Sora and Pacha's fire. Sora frowned and balled his fists, and Pacha, looking like he was about to loose it, simply took a deep breath and clapped his palms together in a prayer pose.

"Because," The peasant said. "Deep down, I think you'll realize that you're forcing an entire village out of their homes just for you."

This caught Sora's attention.

"Wait, you're doing what?!" He was ignored.

Kuzco rolled his eyes, "And that's bad?"

"Well, yeah." Pacha answered, hoping to get the message through. Sora, abandoning his fire wood, stood up from the ground and joined in to the argument.

"Come on. Nobody's that heartless." Sora said.

Kuzco seemed to ponder on this, taking a moment to think before turning back to Sora. "Since you feel so strongly about this, you can assist-" he pointed at Pacha "-him in taking me back to the palace."

"What? Wait, wait!" Pacha shot up from the ground.

"I could always use more builders for my summer home…" Kuzco muttered to himself.

"How can you be this way? All you care about is building your summer home and filling it with stuff for you!"

"Uh, yeah. Doy. Me." Kuzco shot back. "Everyone else in the kingdom gets it. You're the only one that doesn't seem to be with the program, eh, Pacha?"

Kuzco turned to Sora, "And what do _you_ care? Judging by those circus clothes I'm guessing you're not even from this kingdom."

"I care, because what you're doing is wrong, Kuzco." Said Sora.

"I agree." Kairi walked over to them. "You're turning an entire village homeless."

"Doesn't that effect you at all?" Mia joined in.

"Mmmmmm…" Kuzco pretended to think. "Nope."

"You know," Dan walked over, cutting in, "Someday, you're gonna wind up all alone. And you'll have no one to blame but yourself."

Kuzco stared, blinking once, twice before saying, "Thanks for that little life lesson. I'll log that away. Now, for the final time, I order you to take me back to the palace!"

Pacha sighed and sat back down, finally starting the fire and keeping it alight. "Looks to me like you're stuck out here. Because unless you change your mind, I'm not taking you back." Everyone else joined Pacha by the fire, turning away from Kuzco.

The llama frowned in anger and began mimicking the Peasant under his breath, before picking up a small stone and pelting it a Pacha. "OW!" Pacha cried and spun around, where Kuzco froze. "Huh? What? I didn't do anything. I didn't... Somebody's throwing stuff. You gonna cook those fish or what? What's going on?"

Sora furrowed his brow and was about to get up and say something else to Kuzco, but Pacha stopped him. "Don't waist your breath, Sora. He isn't worth it. He's never gonna change."

Kuzco, deciding to distance himself from everyone else, curled up on the ground in front of the rock face, ruffling his fur to keep warm. "How am I ever gonna get out of here?"

--------------

Night-time loomed over the impeccably tall walls of the palace. The moon's reflection illuminated off of the crystal clear blue water of the fountains and moats. Guards patrolled the grounds, entrances and exits – all the while fighting to stay awake until their watch was over and it was time for the next guard to take over his duty. The announce of Emperor Kuzco's death had been a tragedy to the citizens of the kingdom, where some wept over the loss of the kingdoms ruler.

Although, not everyone was in tears of this discovery. One person in particular, almost bouncing off the walls with her glee, did not shed a single tear – if anything couldn't stop smiling. This was Yzma; the Emperors former adviser. The loss of her job had run this elderly woman to anger, causing her to plot against this Emperor and kill him. She had sent out her right had man, Kronk, to take Kuzco out to one of the palace's many open porches and distract him with the natural beauty of the kingdom's distant mountains and hills (one mention of the location of his summer home and he was in).

Yzma gave Kronk a potion to slip into Kuzco's drink while he wasn't looking and offer it to him. There Emperor Kuzco died and was pushed into to moats surrounding the palace, where the current would carry him off to sea and his body will never be found again.

The woman of the night was now lounging on a very extravagant lounge chair, right where the Emperor's throne use to sit, and was giving a very detailed story of how exactly Kuzco passed to another woman who looked all but interested.

"…And then he _pushed _the brat into the water where the river will take care of his body. Goodbye forever Kuzco! Long live the Emperor!" She added the last part in mock before exploding into a round of hysterics.

"Yes, yes. Very good." The woman clicked her heels against the tile floor, her large staff dragging along with her feet. She spoke in a very dull and get-to-the-point voice. "Where _is_ this…assistant of yours?"

"Oh, still out." Yzma waved a hand. "Flaunting his newly found pride of killing the Emperor, I'm sure."

"Well, he better be dead." Maleficent said. "I wouldn't have let you get this far in power if I wasn't sure it would benefit me. With that _child _ruling the world there would be no way to get that annoying Keyblade Master and two princesses in my grasp."

"And that's why you have me – "

"Do not fail me, Yzma." Maleficent cut her off in a very stern and final tone.

Despite her previous 'cloud 9' mood, Yzma gulped and her eyes opened in fear when the horned woman inched her staff ever so slightly toward her. "Ye-yes, M-Maleficent. I will never fail you. Kuzco's dead. The empire is mine. And the three are just within our grasp!"

"For your case, I should hope so." Was the last thing the witch said before vanishing into a portal of darkness that appeared out of thin air. Yzma laughed nervously. Suddenly the doors to the throne room opened wide and the right hand man himself walked into the room, seeming almost wary.

"Ah! Kronk darning!" Yzma beamed as Kronk galloped up the long and steep stairway up to her podium.

"Hey, Yzma." Kronk spoke in a low-alto voice, a slightly cautious tone hidden somewhere underneath that she missed.

Reaching over to grab a drink that was sitting on a little wooden stool, Yzma spoke to Kronk, "Kronk, darlin', I must admit you had me worried. I wasn't quite sure you'd be able to pull it off. But you did! The Emperor if dead and I couldn't be more proud of you!"

"Uh, yeah…" Kronk gulped. "He's... He's dead, all right. I mean, you can't get much deader than he... than he is right now." He chuckled before continuing his ramble. "Unless, of course, we killed him again!"

Yzma turned away from her wine to look at Kronk suspiciously. "I suppose."

"Hey, look! The royal dresser's here!" Kronk pointed to where a short man was rolling over to them on a tall platform.

Yzma got up as the man began to measure Kronk. "Kronk,"

"I should tell you now; I'm kind of hard to fit."

"Kronk." She was ignored.

"I wear a 66 long and a 31 waist." The man nodded and went to make more measurements, but didn't get the chance on the account of Yzma coming up and booting him right off the very high podium. The dresser went flying though the air to the bottom screaming. Yzma grabbed Kronk by his sharp chin, bringing him down to her level.

"Tell me Kuzco's dead. I need to hear these words." She mused, closing her eyes.

Kronk looked around the room, trying to par long from answering before he finally managed, "Do you need to hear all those words exactly?"

Yzma's eyes flashed open and her face wrinkled up (even more), her eye twitching. "He's still alive?!" She growled.

"Well, he's not as dead as we would've hoped."

"Kronk!"

"I just thought I'd give you the heads-up in case Kuzco ever came back."

"He can't come back!" Yzma growled through clenched teeth.

Kronk laughed nervously. "Yeah. That would be kind of awkward... especially after that lovely eulogy."

"You think?!" She cried and slapped her forehead. "How did this happen? What did you do wrong?!"

"Well, ha ha. Remember that potion you gave me? The poison? Well, ha ha, apparently the poison wasn't as…poisony as you thought." Kronk answered nonchalantly.

"What, do you mean, Kronk?" Yzma hissed, trying to go for a calm tone.

Kronk took a long awaited deep breath before deciding to just break the news to her. "Kuzco's a llama."

All hell broke loose.

"WHAT?!?!" Yzma screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice echoing around the entire empire.

----------------

Sora whipped his head from side to side, then to the sky. "What was that?"

Pacha looked up from his fish, "Hmm? Oh." He shrugged.

There was silence.

"Must be bat season." Pacha said.

"Mmm."

Silence.

They went back to eating.

"Good fish."

"Tasty."

"Yeah."

"Low wind tonight."

"It is. Unusual for this time of year."

"Yeah.

"It's good. Not too hot or cold."

"Mmm."

--------------

"A llama?! HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!!" Yzma pulled at her hair.

"Yeah. Weird…" Kronk agreed.

"I just told Maleficent he was dead!" She screamed and began pacing around the room, trying desperately to think of what to do now. I didn't much help the situation when Kronk added, "Well, I guess that's your fault. Y' know you shouldn't gloat until you have the full facts…"

Yzma stared at Kronk with fire in her eyes. Her death glare was strong enough to make Kronk brake of mid sentence and stare in fear. "Let. Me. See. That. Vial." She hissed.

Kronk reached into his pocket and pulled out an empty little glass tube, a white label hanging loosely on the front. Yzma snatched it out of Kronk's large hands and examined the front. Yzma noticed that what she thought was a skull picture on the label is actually a portion of the actual picture. Yzma pulled the scrunched paper down with a sharp nailed thumb to reveal a black outline of a llama.

Her eye twitched. "This isn't poison! This, is extract of llama!"

Kronk leaned in to see the picture. "Huh. Well would you look at that. It is!"

Yzma growling in anger, lifted the vile in the air and sent it back down crashing to the ground, hoping for it to break. Instead the little tube bounced right off the tiles and went falling off the podium, bounced again and kept on rolling.

Yzma turned to Kronk, "You and I are going out to find him." She said. "If he talks, we are through! Now let's move!"

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Hope you enjoyed that.

**I realised just recently that the location of the movie is actually an Incan place. …Woops. My mistake. I might go back and fix that later or I might just leave it as it is.**

**I once again apologize for any typos or spelling errors. I know they're in there somewhere!**

**Please review.**

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	20. Imaginary

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.**

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"Funny, isn't it; How things turn out."

Sora's eyes twitched at the sudden brightness behind closed lids, not expecting the extreme quantity, or even the voice that rang out of nowhere, its owner both a stranger and mystery to him. An abnormal sensation of weightlessness washed over the sixteen year old, leaving him in complete and utter confusion. One moment he was lying down on a grey, itchy blanket in the middle of the jungle, listening to a llama's teethe chattering together as he fought to stay warm and the next...this.

"I mean you spend a good four years of the beginning of your life with a guy and you think you know him."

Sora felt his right hand drift up to in front of his eyes and squinted them, attempting to open. Much to his luck the blinding lucent began to dim, sliding together in one long, thin-as-paper line before vanishing completely.

"And do you know how easy it was to get into your head just now?" The modulation laughed once. "Pretty damn easy!"

Sighing, Sora let his eye lids flutter open to the environment in which he now stood: Sand.

Sand, sand and more sand. For as far as he could see. There were no hills, none of those little green-brown little trees or shrubs that you would usually find in a desert. No cliff or rocks either. Nothing but a forever travelling flat abyss of sand. Confused Sora turned his head to the sky, but realised soon after that there was none. A shrill whistle burst through Sora's thoughts and he turned around to see a boy about his age, maybe a year younger staring back at him with a smug smirk on his mouth.

"Hello," He said. "I know you're probably wondering where you are. Well, this," He gestured to the land around them, "is your mind."

"My...mind?" Sora said perplexed.

"Well, just your subconscious I guess." He fixed with a shrug. "Not much, I know."

Sora took his time to examine his surroundings – or rather lack of them – for a while, before turning back to the stranger and asking, "And who are you?"

The guy put a hand over his heart, blue eyes widening in fake hurt. "Me? Who am _I_? Why, don't you recognise me, Sora?"

"Should I?" Sora immediately scolded himself the moment the words escaped his mouth. He realised he had a knack of saying things he didn't want to or talking when he didn't want to in his dreams.

"You think this is a dream?" The boys voice dropped into a threatening tone, his smile fading as if it never existed. Suddenly, at speed as fast as lightning the stranger disappeared and reappeared right in front of Sora. Here Sora realised that he was at least half a head taller. "You think this is a dream," Pulling out a a sliver rod about the length of Sora's forearm, he spun it around in his palm once and positioned the point above Sora's navel.

"Do you think _this_ is a dream?" Sora screamed in pain when the little rod transformed into a large, sharp scythe and sliced straight through his stomach and to the other side. Collapsing to his knees Sora felt the boy dig his weapon of death itself deeper into him.

"Still feel like a dream?" He demanded, shouting now. When all Sora could utter was a tortured groan in response, the boy chuckled and ripped his scythe out, Sora watching it – drenched with his blood – transform back into the little rod, the red liquid disappearing like it was never there.

"Well, you're right: it is a dream."

Collapsing into the sand when all the pain from before vanished, Sora was left there on the floor gasping. The boy rolled his eyes, "Get up, you're fine."

"Who are you?!" Demanded Sora.

He hesitated before answering slowly, "Stefan."

"Stefan," Sora repeated with his next breath, as if the name sounded familiar. Using his knee as a crutch, Sora slowly lifted up from the sand, repeating the name again but not too sure why.

"Hmm," He heard Stefan muse. "This place a little dull for ya?"

Sora shifted his weight, again unable to stop from speaking what's on his mind. "A little."

"This is your mind, Sora. Meaning you can make it more exciting."

"How?" Sora asked, suddenly interested.

"Just imagine something. Anything." Sora tuned around, staring at the distance. He should have been able to see a horizon, but there was none. It seemed as if the sand kept on going forever, and he could see it _all._ Just as Sora was about to close his eyes Stefan broke in. "Oh, I forgot the mention. You can imagine anything you want as long as it _adds_ to the sand. I'm afraid that this is your mind we're talking about, and it needs a sturdy ground to keep it up. Get rid of the sand and your entire brain breaks down. Yeah... messy. And what use are you to everyone as a vegetable?"

Sora winced, "Thanks for the heads up,"

"Pleasure."

Closing his eyes Sora pictured the arid abyss behind closed lids. Taking this image, Sora added a blue sky above with a few puffy clouds swimming around in there. He then opened his eyes to see the exact life like picture in front of him.

He heard Stefan huff. "Is that the best you can do? _Boring_."

Smiling, Sora closed his eyes again, this time paining a crystal clear blue ocean to match, a couple trees and other plants and an actual horizon, a bright yellow sun hovering above it. Stefan tilted his head, "Hmm. Better, but I think you could do more."

Before him appeared crashing waves on the shore, mountains in the distance behind, fields of green grass, birds of every size and colour flying overhead, chirping and whistling. A soft, warm breeze erupted from all around, blowing Stefan's long hair lightly.

Sora smiled, proud of his work, just as a humerus laugh reached his ears and the brunette turned around to see Stefan laughing at him.

"What?"

"How much gel have you got in that thing? Even with this wind it doesn't budge an inch!" He exploded into a new round of laughter.

"I don't have any gel in my hair," Sora admitted quietly, causing Stefan to stop suddenly and stare.

"That's just creepy, then."

"Whatever." Sora joined in, suddenly feeling all the tension and confusion of before blown away by the wind. He could feel it nagging at him at the back of his head, but it was like he didn't want to listen. More and more things started to appear, such as palm trees, long and bright leafy vegetation, broad-walks, shells on the beach. It could have been three seconds or five minutes longer, Sora couldn't tell, but the land around him was looking a lot like Destiny Islands.

Stefan whistled, "Wow. Nine work, big brother."

Suddenly the wind stopped and the waves were still again. "Wh...what did you call me?"

Stefan looked around and shrugged. "Ah' dunno. What did I call you?"

"You just said I was your..."

"SORA!" A yell, travelling through the air, suddenly burst through the boy's range of hearing and slapped Sora in the face. The voice was one he recognised very well. Sora zapped around to see Roxas standing at the shore line. Every so often he would push forward, as if there was an invisible barrier keeping him in place.

"Sora didn't listen to him! It's a trap!" Roxas screamed, his fists pounding the air to break trough.

"Roxas?!" Sora gasped. Again, couldn't stop words from coming out of his mouth, "Where the heck have you _been_?! I've been calling and calling for ages now!"

"I was out, ok!" The Nobody answered quickly, in a sort of "moving on" fashion.

"What? How can you do that? I told you to stay put when we're in the worlds!"

"Really? We're doing this _now_?"

"Are you two ladies done?" Stefan's voice changed, became deeper and more sinister. Sora slowly turned his eyes to the scythe user to see that he was no longer holding a scythe. Instead, now, in his hand balancing against the hard ground below them was a long blue/green staff. And Sora knew who it belonged to very well.

'Stefan' pointed the staff toward Roxas. "And how are _you_ even here?!"

"Sora I told you, it's a trap! He—" Roxas began.

"Go away! We are in the middle of something here!" He was now clad in a faded white robe, the blue markings on written all over them still undecipherable to Sora. His face was slowly changing; the boyish features and semi-tan were now growing older and pale. Before he could fully transform the man pulled his long hood over his head. Stefan's hand turned longer and thinner, becoming that familiar grey-green.

"You…" Sora breathed. "But…how?"

"I got into your head once before, didn't I? What made you think I couldn't do it again?" The Unnamed One's voice was muffled under Roxas' booming warning,

"He is trying to trap you here, Sora! Trying to make this place look so great that you wouldn't want to leave! He is trying to distract you, Sora! Don't buy it!"

"Roxas," Sora whispered in a trance like state as he tried to listen to both of them. Frowning, Sora turned away from his Nobody and to The Unnamed One. "What did you do with Stefan?!"

"Are you really that dense?" The Unnamed One scoffed. "That was _me_. I was only taking up a form that won't send you attacking at first sight!"

By the water Roxas pounded on the glass, inwardly cursing at his many failed attempts to summon his Keyblades. "What is he doing?" The blonde groaned, "He's even harder to get through to in his dreams…"

Ignoring Roxas when he called his name again Sora looked at The Unnamed One with pure hatred in his blue eyes. "Who was he?"

The Unnamed One failed to notice when Sora's eyes darkened a shade of blue. "Who? The boy?" The man laughed his senile cackle that Sora recognised very well. "Why do you care?"

"He… _You_ called me his…brother?" The Keyblade Master asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, so?" The Unnamed One prompted.

"I'm an only child."

The Unnamed One laughed again. Behind him a few palm trees and broad-walks vanished from existence. "Are you sure about that, Sora?"

"Yes! I'm sure!" Sora snapped, taking a step back as the mountains disappeared. "The only brother I have is him!" Sora pointed toward Roxas, who had given up trying to break through and was standing there with his arms crossed on his chest, expression reading "about time you noticed me". "The guy who is trapped in an invisible barrier!"

Without warning Sora shot down the slope of the sand he conjured up and made his way toward Roxas. Sora meant to stop once he reached the bottom, but the steepness of the sandy hill proved too much for Sora to run down, causing him to loose his footing and go tumbling the rest of the way. When Sora finally stoped it was when he flipped upside down and crashed his head into Roxas' glass cage.

"OW!" Sora cried when he attempted to flip his body right way up again.

Roxas slapped his forehead, leaning against the glass. "Sora, you should know; in my days of the Organisation when I pictured my Other, I never really pictured…_you_."

Once the brunette was right way up again he glared at the blonde, "Gee, thanks, buddy." He said sarcastically. Sora then realised something and focussed his gaze on the air in front of him.

Suddenly the glass tube shattered into pieces, causing Roxas to stagger out of it. "What happened?" Roxas almost fell to the ground.

"I just visualised it gone." Sora shrugged, stopping when Roxas winced and lifted his arm to pull out a shard off glass which had pierced into his forearm.

"Could you have-" he yanked it out "-visualised it a little more subtly?"

"Don't be so weak." They both turned toward The Unnamed One who had appeared on the sand next to him. Without a moments hesitation The Unnamed One shot forward and latched his ancient green hand around Roxas' neck, leaving him to gasp in shock.

"I don't know how an annoying little Nobody brat like you can still live on after their Others have been resurrected, after so many stronger before have faded trying!" When Sora went to get up from the ground The Unnamed One waved his staff in the boy's general direction, sending him back to the ground. "Don't worry," He said, "I'll fix that."

Leaving Sora struggling to regain his feet, The Unnamed One carried Roxas to the waters edge. Roxas went to kick the old man in the stomach with no prevail and then went for his Keyblades. The Unnamed One only laughed.

"Keep trying, pest!" He spat.

"Aahhgh!" Sora screamed in frustration. In one slick move The Unnamed One threw Roxas against the water, dunking his torso under. Roxas lashed out under the water, trying to fight back. Sora pounded the ground and tried to get up or summon his Keyblade: nothing happened. He heard the sound of splashing water and Roxas gasp. The Unnamed One asked him something else that Sora didn't quite catch. Roxas went under again.

Sora closed his eyes and went to work, cursing himself for not realising it sooner, and imagined the ocean gone. When Sora opened his eyes in front of him he saw Roxas, completely saturated, gasping on the perfectly straight sand, The Unnamed One standing over him wondering what just happened. Sora imagined himself up on his feet and was surprised when he was able to do so.

"What did you do, boy?!" The Unnamed One spat at Sora.

"I'm sorry," Sora began, "but you do not control this place. _I_ do." Seconds after Sora finished that sentence a rushing destructive wave appeared out of nowhere behind The Unnamed One, threatening to collapse at any second. The man lifted his staff up to the wave, watching in mortification when nothing happened.

Sora snorted, "That all the proof you need? I can imagine anything I want here – even your staff to stop working."

When Roxas was finally able to get to his feet he walked over to stand side by side with Sora, not even noticing that he was dry again. The wave dripped and moved an inch closer to The Unnamed One. The elderly man attempted to move away but looked down to his feet when he couldn't to see sand had buried up to his ankles.

"Let me go, boy!" The Unnamed One roared.

"This isn't Broken Kingdom!" Sora roared in response, his eyes darkening yet another shade. "You can't get anything you want here! This is my _mind_. Do you get that? It means you do what I say when I say it and what I want."

The wave fell closer. Sora's eyes darkened.

"And I want you out." Sora ordered the wave down on The Unnamed One, but stopped inches from his head, his ankles also exposed out of the sand.

The Unnamed One laughed insanely again. "You think you can beat me?! You?! A mere _child_!" He cackled. "No, no, Sora. This is just the beginning! I am a spirit, do you understand that?! A _spirit_. I can travel wherever I want to, enter whoever I want to."

Sora frowned. The wave dripped but didn't go any further.

The Unnamed One smiled menacingly behind his hood. "For example, I could visit next a certain Princess of Heart's dreams,"

Sora froze. The Unnamed One cackled at his stillness. "…You stay the heck away from Kairi."

"Namine too." Roxas added in the same threatening tone.

The Unnamed One laughed as the sky disappeared, the trees, the grass and the horizon in the distance. Everything was the same as when Sora first came there. The Unnamed One took this little spot of weakness to wave his wand in the air, disappearing into thin air just as the wave came crashing down and disintegrated against the sand.

Sora blinked, his eyes turning back to their usual shade when both boys turned to each other, the fear on their faces shone like a thousand stars. The fear was still visible when they disappeared.

--------------

Sora shot up from the ground, biting his lip when a startled gasp was about to escape. Sora turned his head hastily toward the sky – half expecting not to see one – noticing that it was almost time for dawn to break. Beside his me heard a rustle, like someone moving against leaves, but did not look just yet. Sora closed his eyes and mentally called Roxas.

It took a while for Sora to get a response, but nonetheless, he got one. "_Yes, I'm here. Listen, Sora, about before…I wasn't ignoring you because I was mad at you for not agreeing to let me come out and help with the fights. No, no, if you remember I would be giving you the silent treatment for _days_ if that was the case." _A soft chuckle flowed through Sora's head. The latter found himself smiling, too.

"_Yeah, I know. Don't remind me. You were _so_ annoying that week!" _

After another short laugh Roxas continued, _"I really couldn't hear you. It was like one you landed in Broken Kingdom we sort of… uh_, lost connection_, I guess. I was calling for ages, too." _

Sora mentally nodded, so that Roxas could see it, but said nothing else for the time being. _"Sora…? How are you?"_

"_A little shaky. That was just so strange. You?"_

"_I'm fine. I mean I was almost drowned, but fine."_ Sora laughed, and then suddenly became serious.

"Stefan," He whispered out loud.

"_What?"_ Roxas cut in, sensing that Sora would be thinking to deeply soon and it would be impossible to break through.

"_I don't know. That name… it just sounds so familiar. Like I've heard it before but don't know where."_

"_Got me. I've never heard of someone by that name ever before. Sorry."_ Roxas answered.

Sora mentally chuckled. "_Eh, don't worry about it. All I need you to do is stay right where you are. Don't go anywhere."_ This caused Roxas to laugh at the forced parental voice Sora was using.

"_Sure, _dad_." _They both laughed.

Suddenly the rattling came again and this time Sora turned his head. Roxas left. After a few moments Sora was able to determine that the source of the noise was coming from a patch of leaves. He also noticed that the "bed" where Kairi was sleeping next to him was empty, the top blanket gone, too. The rustling came again louder, and Sora wasn't quite sure but he thought he heard a muffled "ouch" hiss out of the trees. Underneath Pacha and Kuzco's snoring Sora was sure that if he got up to investigate he wouldn't wake anyone up.

Getting to his feet Sora slowly tip-toed through the camp site, having to step over a couple of people to get where he needed. Sneaking around Dan was the most difficult, because once he spiky-haired boy walked around to the top of his head, Dan turned and pulled an arm above his head, causing Sora to trip over it and do a face plant in the dirt. Lifting his torso up with a glare, Sora slowly looked back at the unconscious boy and grabbed a stray piece of fern from the grass and poked it at Dan's face, watching in humour when the sleeping boy tried to wack it away.

Sora woke up again when the leaves moved. …_Oh yeah. The trees… _Getting up off the floor Sora headed toward the trees, ready to call his Keyblade in case he discovered at Heartless or something. Reaching out to grab the leaves Sora hesitantly poked his head about the bush, expecting to see an animal sitting there eating or just relaxing.

What he was not expecting, was Kairi.

They both saw each other at the same time, and both suddenly finding themselves thanking everyone under the sun that it was still dark and that their tomato red blushes weren't visible…they hoped. Kairi was standing there in the middle of the ferns built into a bit more then a crescent shape, eyes wide, hair that was dry but everywhere, as if she were standing in the middle of a tornado, blanket tied around her torso and her Keyblade lying in the grass by her feet. Through the darkness if Sora didn't look hard enough it would seem as if the ground were sprouting little metal flowers. There was also some sort of blue fabric next to her Keyblade. It took Sora some time to finally realise that the blue cloth was actually her tank top.

Sora gasped and turned his eyes away quickly. "Kairi! I – I'm _so _s-sorry!"

"Sora!" Kairi gasped after him and sunk deeper into the leaves. One if the pointed ferns poked into her bare shoulder blade, unfortunately causing her to yelp and jump back where she was again. "W-what are y-you d-doing up? I-I-I-I thought everyone was asleep…" Kairi stuttered nervously and pulled the blanket up higher.

"Uh…" Sora muttered. "W-well I woke up a-and I heard a n-noise c–coming from the bushes s-so I, um, I got up t-to have a look and…yeah." Sora explained all in one breath, before mentally face palming himself for sounding so stupid. "No! I didn't mean "have a look at _you_" because I didn't know it was _you._ O-otherwise I w-wouldn't have…well…um,"

"Hehe, well, um, I woke up a while ago and, uh, wasn't able to get back to sleep b-because my – my shirt was so itchy from the water, so I got up to, um, t-to try and dry it with an _Aero _spell. But I didn't want to wake anyone up s-so I came in here."

"Ok…" Sora muttered. "Good. Because for a moment there I thought you were like a Heartless or something."

He actually slapped himself this time.

"Not that you _look_ like a heartless or anything! You – you don't have sharp claws or…yellow eyes or want to eat peoples hearts." He covered. "And you most certainly don't have a hole in your chest like some Heartless do."

"_Just leave it there before you make a bigger idiot of yourself."_ Sora wasn't really paying attention to Roxas' warning.

"Ok, well that's good." Kairi blushed.

"Not that I would know or anything!" He added, very much regretting it after.

"_Sora, seriously, stop talking."_

"No, I don't mean it like that! I'm not saying w-_want_ to know or anything! Not that I would want to check, you know in case you _were_ secretly a…" Sora stopped. "That's not what I was trying to say either!"

Kairi nodded, biting her lip while her blush deepened from embarrassment…and also a bit of confusion. Did he just call her a Heartless?

Roxas hearing a new load of rambles Sora was about to give, shouted a very clear, very loud message he was sure Sora would get: _"SHUT UP!"_

Sora sighed and grumbled, "I'll just shut up and leave you alone now."

"No!" They both froze. Sora was half turned away from her when his heart picked up speed and he turned back.

Kairi stared at the ground, mortified. "I mean… I-I left my jacket by the edge and I wanted to check if that was dry, too."

"And?" Sora slowly asked, and Kairi could tell that he didn't want to say much anymore.

"_And_ I can't walk out there like…_this_. What if somebody else wakes up?" Kairi said in a small, shy voice.

Sora slowly nodded, still trying to avoid eye contact. "And you want me to…?"

"Well, you could both walk away now and go back to bed, or you could pull your foot out of your mouth and help me."

Sora scratched the back of his head. "If Mia wakes up you'll be fine. But if it's Kuzco or Pacha or…Dan… One moment please." With that Sora marched over to the waters edge. The thought of Dan waking up and catching Kairi half naked made his blood boil. Although, when he got there Sora couldn't tell Kairi's pile from anyone else's. Sora allowed himself a miniature panic attack before he began to scramble around in the dark, praying he didn't accidentally knock someone's shoe back into the water.

From the corner of his eye Sora saw Kairi poke her head out of the trees. "Sora?" He heard her hiss.

"Just a sec!" He hissed back. Sora closed his eyes and grabbed whatever his hand landed on first. Leather: definitely not.

Back in the bushes Kairi had dropped her blanket and was attempting to pull her tank top back on. But the heavy lack of light was giving her a hard time, especially with the trees hiding whatever moonlight there was. In her haste Kairi had somehow managed to get her bra strap tangled with the strap of her tank top. She groaned when it didn't get untangled.

"_Help me!"_

"_What can I do?!" _Namine said, some of Kairi's franticness affecting her. "_Um, just pull and hope something happens."_

Sora was rummaging around by the water. He almost jumped with glee when he grabbed something that felt like fluff, hard and stuck together from the water. Sora confirmed that it was in fact Kairi's jacket when he saw the length, and no zipper.

"Yes!" He hissed. "I got it!"

When Kairi heard Sora's whisper she began to panic. "Uh-oh." Giving up with the top Kairi went for her blanket again, leaving her blue tank-top to dangle by her shoulder like some sort of weird hood. Although, Kairi only had time to pick the thing up before Sora popped into the trees.

Sora meant to stop just at the entrance to the little "changing room", but failed to see Kairi's Keyblade still lying on the ground. Sora's foot crashed into the hilt (thank Goodness) of the blade, sending him flying forward. Seeing this, Kairi made the biggest mistake by inching forward to try and catch him, because she soon realised the boy was too heavy for her and they both went plummeting to the earth.

Sora and Kairi landed on the ground with an "Oomph!". They both opened their eyes at the same time and their blush immediately reappeared. Kairi was lying flat on her back, with Sora on top of her with his hands and knees on either side of her body. The fall had caused Kairi to drop the blanket before she could wrap it around her, and now, unfortunately, light was just beginning to return and the environment wasn't as dark as it was a couple minutes ago.

Sora's eyes widened and he realised he wasn't breathing. Sora shut his eyes tightly and moved off of her, practically trowing Kairi's jacket in her face. "Here-here's your jacket!" Sora got up and ran back to his "bed".

**

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I have nothing to say.

**Please review. **

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Chapter Twenty: Imaginary


	21. Ghost

**Chapter 21: Ghost**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_Go_n_e fo_r_ a w_a_lk – m_e_e_t_ at R_OP_E BR_I_D_G_E!_! 

Danniel stared blankly at the careless scribble in the dirt, a frown of frustration slowly lurking upon his brow. _...A better word of warning would have been nice... _he thought. Ahead of him Dan could see the long extinguished embers of last night's camp fire, an ashy quilt covering the the perimeter around the wood and decorated with short bones of fish here and there. The waterfall was splashing much more quiet and calmly against the rocks and lily pads in the lagoon – a huge improvement from last nights roaring. Around the corner Mia was pulling her hair up into its usual high pony tail, only one of her reddish-brown cowboy boots on for reasons unknown.

Dan watched in amusement, taking notice of how she would wince and hiss every now and then when her red mane get tangled in between her fingers – or stuck around the band or caught in her small stud earrings. Soon after Mia growled and dropped her stressed arms, looking up to see Dan staring at her with that annoying smirk plastered on his mouth.

Mia scowled and looked away, her arms crossed tightly on her chest. "What?" She hissed.

Dan simply lifted up from the ground, still smirking, and walked over to the girl, eyeing her half tied hair. "I think you should leave it down."

"Why?" Mia asked slowly and full of suspicion, her mind flashing back to when they were kids. If Mia ever left her hair out to flow down her back, Dan would always take this opportunity to tug and pull at it whenever they played. After that she would _always _tie her hair in either a pony tail or two pig tails. Well, whenever he was around, any ways.

Guessing what she was thinking about – as if the way she pulled her hair into a protective grasp wasn't a give away enough – Dan chuckled lightly, a rare sound for Mia to hear, and sat down in front of her. "It just looks like you'd be here all day trying to pull it up. Oh, and by the look on your face let me just remind you we were seven. Kids! I don't and won't go around pulling your hair any more!" He said, holding his palms up.

Mia sighed deeply before squinting her eyes shut and pulling the band out, wincing along the way.

"There we go! Just like when you were seven – except you're taller and you don't punch me as much any more."

With a grin and an evil spark in her eyes, Mia stood up and flipped her head forward, shaking her hair around a little before shooting back up so that whatever dampness it still held would splatter all over Dan. Flinching when a droplet landed in his eye, Dan stood up too.

"Thanks." He droned, reaching forward and yanking his hand down quickly when he secured a small lock of her hair. Mia jumped, a high pitched yelp escaping her lips, and glared her guardian.

Dan shrugged and smiled. "For old time sakes."

Mia narrowed her eyes and connected her fist with his shoulder. Dan hissed.

"For old time sakes." Mia mused.

Dan was about to voice one of the many things that shot into his head at that time when he stopped, noticing something in the short distance ahead of him. "What's up with those two?" Mia turned her gaze in the direction Dan was pointing. Sora and Kairi were collecting their shoes and jackets from bank, checking if they were dry – if not both used an _Aero_ spell to fix it. But what was strange was the thick, tension filled atmosphere surrounding them. If Kairi needed to walk over to hang something off of a tree branch to blow dry it, she would be sure to step cautiously and not get in Sora's way, walking around him with a distance of about two meters. Or if Sora needed to get over to the other side of the bank for whatever reason there was he would suddenly stop in his tracks, seeing Kairi in front of him, side step a few paces, and continue on walking.

All in all, it was a strange sight.

Mia's eyebrows crinkled, her lips pressed in contemplation. She shifted her weight, "I don't know," she spoke slowly before suddenly perking up again, "But I'm sure it won't last!"

Mia bent down and slipped her other boot over her remaining exposed skin. When she straightened up again she almost bashed into Dan's chest. Mia gazed up through her lashes to see his face. To anyone else who happened to see him then would think that he was simply just staring intently at the couple by the water, but Mia could always see through his iron mask. Dan's mind, at the moment, was very far away. Tuning into his thoughts Mia listened to the jumbled and uneven chorus of his own voice, rambled words clashing together in the middle from every direction. Mia recognised this scenario as when someone had so many things on his or her mind that they didn't know what to think first. Mia felt butterflies well up in her stomach, caused by his uneasiness.

About to ask him what was wrong, Dan looked to the floor and beat her to it. "I don't like this."

Mia bit her lip, not needing to ask what he was talking about.

Closing his eyes, Dan exhaled in a sort of half sigh, half groan. "You watch over Sora and Kairi, I watch over Riku. That was the deal." He said, opening his eyes. "But how can I do that when I don't even know where he is! Our job is to protect them and keep them alive! With most of us captured by The Clan we are never going to be able to win!"

He pinched the bridge of his nose and turned his back to Mia. "And what about _her_? She is my job too. But it seems as though the only people who know who she is are Donald, Goofy and Mickey!"

Mia hung her head, at loss for words.

"God! I knew we were coming back too early! I told Master Rei that we should have set the Time Gummi a couple years later, but does he ever listen to me? _Noooooo_!" Dan sighed, turning back again to face Mia who was looking up at him with sad eyes. But Dan broke the gaze, not able to look at her.

"Dan, we are going to find her." She said, determined.

Still not able to look at her, Dan's jaw tightened, his teeth clenched, speaking in a low, straight voice. "You know if Riku dies it's gonna be all my fault. You _know _what the punishment for breaking an oath like that is, Mia."

"I know." She agreed. "And I'm not going to let that happen to you. I mean you can go to jail, I don't care, but I'm not going to let you die!"

"You really don't care if I go to jail?" He said in monotone.

"Yeah, of course not!" Mia exclaimed. "Because you do realise that by the time we get back home you won't be under aged any more and they can throw you in prison with not hesitation with noting that even _I _can do about it – besides paying for your bail. But there is no way in hell I am doing that! That's what your parents are for!"

Dan blinked.

"Thanks you _so _much for the concern and support, Emilia. I really do appreciate it."

Dan didn't try to hide the I-am-going-to-kill-you tone in his voice.

"Appreciate what?" Kairi walked up to the two, hands on hips, dressed and ready for the day. Down by the water Sora was muttering something incomprehensible to himself. Mia and Dan both eyed him weirdly, eyebrows knitting together upwardly, eyelids fluttering wider. Kairi pretended not to take any notice of this, but the little jab in the centre of Mia's stomach – just above her navel and slightly to the left – told her that she _did_ in fact notice, although wasn't completely compelled to ask questions or even glance in his direction.

"Uh.." Dan stretched, "noting." He cleared his throat. "Are you and, uh, Mr. Schizo over there ready?"

"I heard that!" Sora shouted from by the water, finally managing to tie the last of his shoe laces and was walking over to the three. And, as if things couldn't get any stranger, when Sora finally reached the rest of his group instead of going and standing beside Kairi like the good little Labrador puppy he was – Dan earned a good solid elbow in the stomach for that thought – Sora went and stood next to Dan. _Dan. _Of all people! Even Kairi straightened up and inched closer to Mia!

"And I was not talking to myself," Sora continued.

Dan, in response, snorted and began making his way to the little path that Kuzco and Pacha made when they left about half an hour ago. "Whatever, Spike. Like I really care what goes on in your head. Just remember, talking to yourself is ok, but it's when you start answering yourself back is when there's a problem."

With that he disappeared into the trees. Sora stood there for a moment with his fists clenched, eyes slightly narrowed in rage. "Does that guy have any nerve at all?" He barked.

Laughing, Mia stepped forward and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder, looking up at him with a humour filled expression. "I wish," She laughed. Sora was about to say something else but Mia silenced him before he could by slinging an arm around his shoulders and pushed him forward, giggling, "Come on,"

Mia let go of Sora once they were well into the trees. Walking at a steady pace, Sora kept his head firmly looking in the left direction whilst Kairi to the right. Felling a tad uncomfortable Sora left the girls and half ran up to where Dan was striding along meters in front of them. But for Dan there was not enough time to ponder, again, exactly what the heck was going on because of a group of Jaguar and Panther Heartless that had pounced out of the leafy walls beside them and landed with a mass of hisses and growls at their feet.

Acting instinctively Sora, Dan, Mia and Kairi's Keyblades all appeared at their sides, ready and glowing for a fight. Mia was the first to leap forward, followed by Kairi close after. Mia blocked a swipe from the Heartless' claw and lunged the point of her blade at the thing's head, only for the deformed large cat to duck out of the way seconds before the Keyblade was meant to make contact. Spinning around Kairi jumped when the Panther Heartless swung a heavily clawed paw at her ankles in an attempt to knock her to the ground. When Kairi landed she brought her Keyblade down at a vertical angle, surprising the wild cat when she landed blow to the top of its head. Mia jumped over to left side of a Heartless that tired her from the back and swung her Keyblade at it, cutting threw the entire length of its body. The Heartless was wounded but not entirely defeated, so she kept on this for a few more times before blasting it with a _Fira_ spell. The Heartless shook and twitched there for some moments before evaporating into a cloud of smoke, a pink heart emerging from the centre and floating upward to the sky. Grabbing her Keyblade with both hands Kairi fired a short and simple _light _spell at it. It wasn't the strongest thing in the world but it did the trick soon enough after a few more tries.

Sora and Dan both lunged forward one after the other, jumping in front of separate Heartless. Dan lunged at one Heartless as it pounced for him, both meeting in the middle blade to paw. The Heartless deflected his attack, jumping up and swiping like mad at the boy's head – which he ducked just in the nick of time. Jumping back up Dan could help muttering, "I always seem to go for the strongest of the group, don't I?" before slashing at the black cat once again. He had managed to land a steady blow this time, grazing the colourful feline across the cheek and twice on the back and left paw. With the Heartless distracted with its newest injuries Dan took this opportunity to strike the Heartless right in the middle of its skull. He barely had time to resettle himself before he felt the presence of yet another enemy close behind him. Spinning around and feeling pretty impatient Dan simply fired a strong _Thundra _spell, watched it take out two more Heartless while he was at it and called it a match.

Sora swung his blade around at the Jaguar and Panther Heartless, just grazing the top of one's head but missing the rest by a single hair. Feeling a little bit embarrassed at this Sora simple stuck to casting spells on the creatures, not quite use to the weight and size of this new Keyblade. Its was actually pretty strange to Sora; all his previous Keyblades had been ranged from sized of big, large, and even larger and even then he didn't have any troubles with the weight. Even since Mickey had given Sora Eclipse he was have some issues with the weight and size of this particular blade – needing to put some extra effort into swinging or even holding the thing in his hand. A small, stubborn little part deep within Sora's heart simple _refused_ to cave and begin handling his Keyblade with both hand _all_ the time, never needing to do so in the past. Sora fired a _Blizzara_ spell but was left chest fallen when he saw the patheticness of the attack; it only leaving the Heartless slightly dizzied out. Sora grunted with annoyance just kept on firing spells out of his blade, watching as each one took on two different colours: either white or black (the black ones being the less stronger). After a while Sora had finally managed to get rid of the three Heartless that had been hassling him, sighing with annoyance when he realised he had actually broken a sweat with just that!

Getting rid of his Keyblade Sora swayed there for some time. Once the dizziness subsided Sora opened his eyes to see the three faces of his travel comrades flooded with concern – Kairi actually _looking_ at him now! Sora blinked.

"Um..." He scratched the back of his head, chuckling nervously. Dan pressed his lips and brushed one finger under his nose, looking at Sora. "What?" Sora sniffed and lifted a hand to his nostrils, only to pull away and gasp lightly when he found a small droplet of blood now on his nail. Sora quickly wiped away any remains of scarlet liquid above his top lip.

"Sora..." Mia began.

"I'm fine." The crack at the end let him down. Sora swayed a few more moments, his head feeling feather light with tiny little stars swimming in front of his vision. The brunette cleared his throat one more time and took a deep breath, standing up straight again and muttered to the others with a humour filled tone, "Well, Mickey _did_ say that the new...powers won't be easy to control at first," Sora chuckled.

Mia had opened her mouth to say something, but instead of words coming out there was a rustle emerge from behind them. The group summoned their Keyblades once again, awaiting another fight, but froze at what they way. On the ground below them, barely the size of Sora's tibia, was a small multicoloured squirl with full glowing yellow eyes. Cocking his head to the side, Sora stepped forward and was left perplexed when the little critter mimicked his movements by shuffling backwards in an almost fearful type way. Sora chuckled and dismissed his Keyblade, kneeling down on one knee to inspect the little animal further.

"Sora," Dan warned.

"A squirl...Heartless?" Kairi said, puzzled.

Sora chuckled, smiling at the little creature. "Aw, it's scared!" He cooed. "Y'know, I don't think I've ever been this near a Heartless before... Up close they actually seem pretty cute – Ahh!" With an animal hiss the Heartless leaped forward and sunk its sharp little claws into Sora's cheek. Sora and the squirl fell back, the Heartless clawing at Sora and Sora trying to rip the little devil off of him. Suddenly without warning the Heartless dissolved into a puff of smoke. Sora lifted himself into a sitting position and looked to the side to see Dan standing close by with a smoking Keyblade.

Sora gulped. "That could've gotten me!"

"Don't be such a baby. C'mon, we better get moving."

* * *

"Alright: spill. What's going between you two?"

"What do you mean?" Sora coughed, tripping over his own feet while he shambled through the earthy brown dirt. There was hidden fear deep within his voice that Dan caught on to very fast. After the group had began moving again Sora and Kairi, deciding that they still felt a little awkward and down right uncomfortable with each others company at the current moment, had moved off in their own directions. Meaning; Mia and Dan.

Danniel rolled his eyes to the sky and refused to buy it. "Yeah, right. I wasn't born yesterday!"

"Technically you haven't been born _yet_..." Sora murmured to the floor.

"Sora,"

"Nothing, really!"

* * *

"What do you think it means when a guy calls you a Heartless?"

Mia tripped over her own feet and almost went face first into the dirt. "What?" She coughed. Saying she was a little startled by the question was an understatement. Ahead of her Kairi saw Sora stiffen and inch away from the guy next to him. Mia noticed this, too, but paid no mind – she could always tune into either ones thoughts later and find out what the situation was. Mia never thought her "gift" would ever be this much fun!

"Just a crazy question... Random," Kairi mumbled while she watched the toes of her boots kick a single annoying pebble out of the way, feeling suddenly a small bit stupid to have asked the question in the first place.

Mia shock her head. "No, no. That wasn't something you ask someone on a daily basis." Mia frowned, wishing she didn't know what was coming next. "What happened?

* * *

"_Sora,_"Dan persisted, drawing out the last letter of the boy's name. Sora frowned and grumbled, "Nothing, Ok! So stop asking!" picking up pace to walk ahead of the entire group. Behind him he could hear Kairi and Mia chatting about something, too. Folding his arms tightly across his chest, Sora kept his head up and posture straight, fiddling with the zippier of his open vest and refusing to talk or even look at Dan now, too. _...You can't have a normal conversation with this guy! What was I thinking?..._

"_I'm going to go out an a limb here and say _not much_."_

"_Shut up, Roxas!"_

Sighing, Dan spoke. "Look, Sora. Believe what you want but I'm not trying to be your enemy."

"Really, you aren't?" Sarcasm. "Gee, what would have given me that – "

"But I'm not entirely trying to be your friend either so don't get your hopes up, kid!" The guardian finished, causing Sora's mouth to gape.

"You know what, forget talking to me because I sure as heck don't want to have a conversation with you!" Sora stomped the dirt.

"And what are you gonna do? Go back there with the girl you're trying to avoid?"

Sora didn't answer.

Dan inwardly chuckled and kept his eyes forward. If anything, he wasn't stupid: he knew the kid would cave and he knew exactly when. In three...two...one...

* * *

"Well, something happened last night..." Kairi began, but it was enough for Mia's eyes to brighten and a beaming smile to replace her previous confused frown. Mia straightened up began bouncing on her heels.

"Really? Really really! Something happened! What?"

"Calm down!" Kairi laughed, thinking the girl strongly resembled a little child sitting in front of a Christmas tree on Christmas morning. Despite Kairi's demand Mia didn't stop bouncing. " I'll tell you what happened if you stop jumping."

As if someone turned a switch on her back off, Mia stopped. Just stopped, was calm, just like that. Kairi could help but be impressed.

"Wow. Um, ok. Here's what happened..."

* * *

"Alright fine!" Sora shot around, continuing in a much quieter tone, "Something _did_ happen." Sora had felt Dan's eyes burning two great big giant holes in the back of his head and quite frankly it was freaking him out. He had caved and he felt weak and ridiculous.

"Okay..." Dan raised his eyebrows behind his bangs, waving a hand for Sora to elaborate. The latter sighed deeply in defeat and fell back into step with Dan.

"Well, last night I couldn't sleep..." Sora went through the entire story of the previous night's events, sugar coding a few eras that he didn't feel up to sharing and just _knew_ that he wouldn't hear the end of it if he did. "...and then I kinda...fell on her..." Sora's face turned bright red and he shut his eyes to the floor, the images burned into his skull for all of eternity now.

* * *

Mia blinked. "He..._fell_ on...you?"

Kairi blushed, memories rushing back with a vengeance. "Y-yeah."

* * *

Dan was silent for quite a while. "Huh." Was what he finally said. _...Could Mia have won the bet already?..._

Sora felt as if his heart and brain were about to explode when he heard a small chuckle erupt from beside him. Sora turned his head to the guy beside him to see a big, and rare, smile plastered on his face. One thing led to another and a chuckle turned into a laugh, and a laugh turned into a fit of hysterics. All in all, Sora was shocked. He was staring at Dan with wide eyes, thinking he had lost his mind. Sora tuned behind him with a nervous smile and giggle, seeing how Mia and Kairi had broken off from their conversation and were staring at Dan the same way as he was.

* * *

"What's wrong with him?" Kairi asked, staring at how Dan was all but on the ground rolling the rest of the way up the path.

"Who knows." Mia replied. "Something different every day."

Despite her composure on the outside, in her head Mia was bouncing off the walls. _I win!_ _I win!_ _I win!_ _I win!_ _I win!_

* * *

After about half a minute of this Dan tried clearing his throat and to take a deep breath, "Ha! I – I'm sorry. I – I shouldn't h-have – Haha – started..." He laughed again. "Are – are you serious? I mean you actually _fell..._"

And he was off again.

Sora growled and barked, "Stop laughing!" After a while Dan actually managed to calm himself. Just like that he was back to his old, bitter, sarcastic self; like the person that came one minute and went the next was an entirely different person.

"So...you fell...on Kairi," Dan nodded.

Sora looked just about ready to strangle Dan (or himself, whichever is easiest). "Yes. Have we established that already?"

"Uh-huh," The futuristic Keyblader pondered. "So, how far did you get?" He teased, leaning in so that the girls didn't hear. "First base? Second? _Third_?"

* * *

"Anything else happen?" Mia said curiously, taking not note of how Kairi was avoiding eye contact.

"What do you mean?"

"Well there's gotta be some reason you're avoiding Sora like the Plague." Suddenly the girl's eyes sparked. "Did you two, you know..." She leaned in closer and whispered, "...kiss?"

"No!" Kairi jolted away. Mia heard an unspoken "I wish" in her thoughts."

* * *

Sora gasped slightly and his eyes shot open wide, the scarlet returning to his features. Sora pushed Dan away from him quite violently. "You...you're sick."

"I'm being _realistic_." He scoffed.

Sora balled his fists. "Well don't be 'cause nothing happened."

"Nothing? At all?" _...Yes! Still in the game! Take that, Mia!..._

* * *

"Really? Absolutely nothing happened?" Mia pouted.

"Yes." Kairi tried to keep her voice from sounding like a hiss.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Mia!" Kairi practically shouted at her.

* * *

"N-no. After we fell I kind of ran..." The porcupine head bowed in embarrassment, his sharp brown locks covering a good part of his face.

"And nothing else happened at all?" Dan heard Sora stumble over his feet, knowing there was more.

"W-well...I...I..." Sora stammered. Dan grinned. "_Yes_?"

"B-before that there was something else..."

"Oh?"

"I...maybe, kinda, sorta...called her a Heartless." Sora squinted his eyes, blurting the sentence out.

"_Oh_." Dan stopped in his tracks for a moment, brows knitted in confusion, before continuing. "Not really what I was expecting, but ok."

Sora groaned and slapped his forehead. "I know! What do I do now? I can't even imagine what Kairi must think of me..." He wined.

"Well, my best guess is that you should maybe, kinda, sorta fix it!" Dan practically shouted in his face. Sora jumped backward in surprise. "What's with you all of a sudden?"

"Nothing. Just fix it." The guy said with a flat tone.

Sora nodded in agreement. "I will, I will." And continued on walking in silence for a few minutes on from that point. Sora remained silent because there was no way in _hell _he was _ever _going to ask Dan for advice on girls – he could barely handle asking that of _Riku_ – and Dan stayed silent because he really didn't give a crap. Until he gave up and broke the silence again, "But you thought about it."

"Dan," Sora warned. "Don't push it."

"I mean you would have – "

"One word!"

"Thought about – "

"DAN!"

* * *

Up ahead the two girls heard Sora scream at the guy next to him. They both frowned in confusion, wondering what in the world was going on up there. "Um," Mia began, "so what are you going to do? I don't really think he intentionally meant it to sound like..._that_."

Kairi sighed, inwardly regretting bringing the whole thing up. "I don't know," She admitted. "But I have to talk to Sora. Let him know that I'm not offended and that I'm not mad!" Kairi's eyes landed on the back of Sora's head, wondering how on earth she was going to pull that off. I mean, he saw her _naked! _Well, not _naked_ naked, but you get the point. Closing her eyes Kairi let out a frustrated sigh. This wasn't going to be easy, if anything, incredibly awkward.

"You better do it soon," Mia advised. "Sooner is better then later."

"I will." Kairi said. Mia waited, staring at the red head until Kairi got the gist. "What, now?"

"No, wait 'til Christmas and scream it at him – yes now!" With a firm push on her shoulder Kairi found herself striding up – quite unwillingly – to Sora and Dan. All she had to do now was find a way to get rid of the third wheel and all was good.

Sora, hearing footsteps crushing the grass and leaves under their feet, turned around expecting to see Mia over to investigate why in the hell himself and Dan were screaming at each other earlier. Instead Kairi came into full view, eyes slightly downcast and fingers fiddling around each other non stop. Sora noticed her cheeks were slightly flushed and she was shifting her weight constantly. Kairi lifted her eyes up to Sora's and blushed deeper, in a small voice she asked, "Sora...can I talk to you?"

Sora simply stared for a moment, that was the first thing she had said to him all morning. Snapping out of his thoughts Sora opened his mouth to answer her, but instead a scream of fright echoed through the forest and all four turned to where the cry erupted.

"That sounded like..."

"Pacha!" Sora finished for Kairi, before bolting off into the trees, leaving Kairi to recover after being taken aback from the sudden exclamation. After clearing her head the remaining three Keybladers took down after the same path.

Sora shot through the leaves, using his Keyblade as a machete to cut away the stubborn branches and other ranges of greenery that flopped in his face while he ran. Sora wasn't sure, but up a head he swore he could hear Kuzco and Pacha shouting something at each other. Behind him Kairi, Mia and Dan finally managed to catch up with Sora, before finally bursting through the leaves into open space. The four were standing at the foot of a long, wide open dirt road, thick layers of vegetation surrounding. To their right was a cliff, and beyond that was the luxurious, exotic decoration were painted on any and every flat surface. Sora also noticed that the main portion of the palace was sculpted into looking like a face. Although, there was no sign of Kuzco and Pacha any where. And no rope bridge.

"Where'd they go?" Kairi wondered, mainly to herself then anyone. With a shake of his head Sora lightly jogged over to the cliffs edge, followed by Mia moments after. When the two reached the cliff side both peeked over the edge, only to flinch and look away, completely missing the two small dark figures at the bottom of the chasm.

"I hate heights." Both complained at the same time, Mia's more strong then Sora's. When both their eyes met Sora shrugged and shook his head, again, to clear it. You couldn't really call Sora's fear of heights a 'fear', exactly. The fear wasn't deadly or even strong. More _uncomfortable_. He didn't really even know when it started. Mia, on the other hand, had always had this deadly fear of heights ever since she was very small, when she got stuck atop of a Ferris Wheel because of some "technical difficulties" with the ride, leaving her up there for approximately three hours. Mia always hated that about herself: a Keyblader afraid of heights was something seriously laughed upon where she came from.

"I don't see them!" Sora called back to the others, moments before Kairi emerged form the trees on the opposite end from where they came from with the same results, "They're not over here either,"

Sora knitted his eyebrow, truly puzzled with the scene before him. Mia and Sora started making their way back the the rest of the party, when suddenly an inhuman, demonic roar erupted from deep within the trees, causing all of them to freeze, stone cold, in place. When Mia and Dan's eyes met both teens gulped and managed to mutter the same exact statement, "Uh-oh..."

"D...D-D-Dan," Mia called nervously.

"Yes?" The addressed responded, tone slightly similar.

"_Please_ tell me that's not what I think it is."

"Depends what you think it is." Dan took a deep breath before tuning to address both Sora and Kairi in the most quiet whisper he could manage. "Sora, Kairi, are you two fast learners?"

"Yeah," Both spoke together. "Why?"

"Because," Mia answered, "you're gonna have to summon up those skills and fast. You'll need them." Five long seconds of deadly silence later the demonic cry came again, this time sounding _much_ closer and stronger. A huge black monster came bursting out of the trees, its mouth locked wide open and wings flapping viciously as it landed in the middle of the road, the impact of that landing caused a medium quake to erupt and almost shake the four Keybladers off their feet. The creature approximately three times bigger then Sora was tall, and five times longer, its molecular structure similar to that of a dragons, with long, broken blue wings and sharp blue barred teeth. There were three horns positioned at the top of its head, the middle larger in both length and width. All three of them were cone shaped and curved outward at the top. The muscular body of the behemoth was a deep texture of black, some deep red cuts and scars from previous encounters with other predators, and to top the entire look of the monster off were five strong legs, a tail with a very sharp and poisonous looking spear on the end, and two glowing yellow eyes.

The behemoth extended it long neck and let out an ear-splitting shriek like a siren call to the sky – the four had to cover their ears from the scream.

"GHOST!" Mia screamed to the others as they all summoned their weapons, before adding at the end, "LEVEL C!" The creature kicked its three hind legs into the air like a bull and out of its mouth came a burning hot string of fire in the shape of a ring. Sora, acting on impulse, swung an arm around Mia and pulled her out of the way moments before the flame struck the ground where she stood heartbeats ago. With another shriek the Dragon Ghost breathed the fire again and Sora lifted his keyblade up in front of him and shouted, "_Reflect_!" Suddenly a clear sphere surrounded both him and Mia just as the flame bounced right off the sphere and back at the Ghost, but the creature reacted like it couldn't even feel it. Which, it probably couldn't.

"Sora!" Dan shouted from the other side of the battle ground. "The Ghost _controls_ fire so it's immune to any fire based attacks! You need something cold!"

Sora nodded, just as the _Reflect_ spell wore off and readied his keyblade for another attack and when it came the unexpected intensity of the flames made Sora and Mia take a nose dive into the dirt. Suddenly a burst of light came from behind and collided with the Ghost's head. The Dragon wailed and bent its head back to see behind and inspect the attack. What the Ghost saw was Kairi and Dan flaying their arms and Keyblades around in the air, shouting things like "Hey you!" and "Over here!". The creature stomped around to Dan and Kairi, whipping its long tail against the ground before sending it charging at the two. Jumping in front of Kairi Dan pointed his Keyblade at the point of the tail, sending ice crystals at it. When the crystals hit their target they moult together around the tail, freezing it before he sent a new wave of ice, this time daggers. The ice daggers pierced directly through the point. The ice gave a barely audible _**crack **_before half of the tail jerked and spanned right off, shattering into one million pieces when it hit the ground.

Sora didn't realise that he still had his arm around Mia until they were back on their feet and she was staring at him intently, saying, "Sora, it's _my_ job to protect _you_, remember? Not the other way round." Sora blushed and snatched his arm away, muttering a quick "Sorry" to the floor and ran up to help Dan and Kairi with the Ghost.

Remembering Dan's advice Kairi Fired a blizzard spell at the behemoth's legs, hypothesising that if she can get it down then it might be a little easier to beat. _Might_. The Ghost roared in pain when the ice collided with its body and flapped its wings viciously. Kairi sent a new wave of ice on it, this time managing to get it limping, but her plan backfired when the Dragon gave one last shocking flap of its wings and floated up in the air, screaming before breathing a new ring of fire to the four. They all managed to just dodge the attack but some of the nearby trees set alight.

Sora ran into a better position and pointed the nose of his blade at the beast, readying for a _Blizarga_ spell when something incredibly shocking and embarrassing happened: The Keyblade flew out of his hands and continued flying through the air until it bounced off the Ghost in the head like a little stick. Sora stood there dumbfounded for some moments, his arm still outstretched to be holding his Keyblade, and looked around to see his three friends staring at him with bewilderment. Sora chuckled with embarrassment, face turning red, and glared down at the ground where his keyblade fell like it was his worst enemy. Growling with annoyance, Sora closed his eyes for a split second and sent his Keyblade away. Sora's battle comrades watched his Keyblade give a bright blue flash before disappearing with great confusion.

"Um, Sora," Kairi called. "What are you doing?"

Sora didn't answer her question, but rather waved a hand and told them all to take cover as he lifted his palm in the air. The other three jogged under the trees and Sora closed his eyes.

_**Better make haste, Sora. Get it before it runs. Ghosts can only stay out in broad daylight for a minimal amount of time, you know.**_

A gasp escaped his lips and Sora's eyes shot open, causing him to lose his concentration. Sora shook the voice away and concentrated again. Suddenly the air around where the Ghost was flying became thick as dark, puffy clouds began to emerge. Gritting his teeth Sora clenched his outstretched fist and suddenly a mini twister began to spiral around the Ghost. The Ghost shrieked and blew more fire, but the thickness of the twister around it only blew it back. Using both hands now Sora opened his eyes again and took a deep breath as the beginnings of snow flakes began to fall from the clouds and on to the Ghost. Clenching his jaw to try harder, the snow began falling thicker and faster, swarming around the screaming dragon like angry bees. Moments later the Ghost was completely invisible behind the veil of ice and wind. Sora dropped his hands and the twister exploded, ice and other crystalline particles flying here and there. Out of a layer of mist the Ghost reappeared, lying unmoving on the ground. Suddenly the creature dissolved, thick black smoke raising like burning embers. Its head and long neck the first to go before moving on to what was left of the tail and then the rest of the body. Out of the centre of the body a light blue heart emerged, covered in some sort of white glow, and floated off the Kingdom Hearts.

Kairi stared at the floating thing sadly, remembering what Mia had told them about the Ghosts. The blue heart: a Heartless. The white smoky glow: a persons soul.

Sora staggered around on the spot before feeling a warm green light wash over him. Better now, Sora quickly wiped any remains of blood from his nose before the others saw.

"How did you do that?" Kairi bombarded Sora when she reached him, expression filled with awe and shock.

"Um...I just stopped thinking and...just _did it_." Sora muttered, adding, "I felt what was in my heart and...well...yeah." He gestured to the smoky remains of the Ghost.

"Sora..." Mia murmered beside him, cupping her chin in thought. "Sky! Sora means sky. Just like Kairi is an abbreviation of Kai, meaning water and Riku means land. That must be how you were able to control the air like that, Sora." She said to him before turning to Kairi, "I bet you 50 munny you can do the same with water, and Riku with earth."

Kairi opened her mouth to speak when screams echoed in the chasm around them. The four ran over to the edge of the cliff just in time to see Kuzco and Pacha swing up on a vine, summer salt through the air and land perfectly in front of the four. Six pairs of eyes stared at each other with amazed expressions. The group all laughed nervously for a momentarily before a tremor broke loose.

"Oh what now?" Dan asked. Although his question didn't get answered. The ground below them began to crumble at their feet and they all felt themselves slipping. Sora, Kairi, Mia, Dan and Kuzco all jumped back onto firm ground, but Pacha, standing in the worst position of the group slipped then the rock completely gave way. Pacha cried out and lashed his arms forward to grab on to anything to stop his descend, when suddenly Kuzco reached forward and caught the fabric of Pacha's poncho by a hair with his teeth and pulled, swinging the peasant back over the edge and onto the ground.

Kuzco looked over the edge of the cliff at the falling piece of canyon wall, before throwing his head back in laughter.

"Woohoo! Yeah! Oh, look at me and my bad self. I snatched you right out of the air! "Oh, I'm a crumbly canyon wall, and I'm taking you with me." Well, not today, pal! Uh-huh. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Uh-huh."

Sora helped Pacha back to his feet, who stared at the dancing llama in wonder before stuttering, "You just saved my life,"

Kuzco abruptly halted his dancing. "Huh?" He huffed, blowing a stray piece of hair out of his eyes. "Yeah. So?"

Pacha smiled and pointed an accusing finger at Kuzco. "I new it."

"New what?"

Pacha just laughed at the Emperors scared tone. Sora chuckled and placed his hands on his hips, speaking in a playful accusing tone. "So there _is_ some good in you after all."

"Oh, no." Kuzco denied.

"Yes there is," Kairi sang.

"Wrong!"

"Admit it." Mia joined in.

"There's nothing to admit!"

"Yeah there is," Dan cut in. "You just saved his life!"

Kuzco shook his head, "Nuh-uh."

"I think there is." Pacha joined back in.

"Nuh-uh!"

"Hey, you could have let me fall."

"Come on. What's the big deal?" Kuzco snapped, shooting back around. "Nobody's that heartless!" The llama clamped both hands over his mouth, wishing he could take back what he said when his gaze met Sora's. Sora crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. Kuzco gained his composure again and waved a hand in the air. "Don't read too much into it. It was a one-time thing."

Sora nodded sarcastically, "Yeah. Sure."

Pacha smiled at the four teenagers before turning and began making his way down the path. "Well, we better get going. With that bridge out, it's a four-day walk to the palace."

Kuzco paused and turned toward Pacha, thinking it was some sort of trick. "What? You mean you're still taking me back?"

Pacha nodded. "I shook on it, didn't I?"

Kuzco blinked, taken a back as the four teenagers began following Pacha, Sora muttering some sort of complaint about the whole "four-day walk" thing. "Well, yeah, uh, but I hope you realize that doesn't change a thing. I'm still building Kuzcotopia when I get back."

Pacha nodded. "Well," He said, "four days is a long time. Who knows? Maybe you'll change your mind."

Kuzco stared blankly at the peasant, a sort of "keep dreaming" expression. "Uh-huh. Hmmm. Four days, huh?"

"Yep."

"So...what are the chances of one of you guys carrying me?"

"Not good!" They all responded together.

**

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**

Hey! Sorry about the late update and sorry that this chapter didn't really follow much of the movie, but I really just needed to shove a Ghost in there already!

**Please review.**

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	22. Mudka's Meat Hut

**Hello! So I am officially DONE with all my exams! WHOOHOO! *Jumps around in a circle crazily throwing her hands everywhere until she realises something* ...Uh...that is...until the _next_ assessment block comes along... T_T **

**Yeah, so on a slightly cheerier note, here is my twenty second chapter of Broken Kingdom! Yay! You know when I was first debating whether to actually write this story or not I never quite pictured getting this far. Hmmm, well I sure showed me! **

**Ok, I'm going to just stop jabbering and get to the point now. Here is chapter 22 everyone! I am going to stick mainly to the plot of the story for this chapter, since I can sense that the way I'm going I'll never finish this world. Enjoy! The disclaimer stands.**

**(Oh, and if there's anyone wondering what's going to happen with Riku and the others, well I should hopefully get to them in about another couple chapters.)**

_Chapter 22: Mudka's Meat Hut_

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"No! No, no!" An old wrinkled hand viscously yanked down a very neat and detailed map of the entire Kingdom, only to scribble over the beautifully elaborate designs with a sharp inked quill. Yzma clutched the quill in her hand, almost snapping it as she attempted to control her burning temper. "We've searched every village around the Palace, and still no sign of Kuzco! WHERE IS HE?"

Clenching her fists Yzma tossed the pen to the other side of the "room" she was in and pulled down on the chord of the chart, sending it flying back upward and spinning on the rod a few times. Face glowing scarlet with rage Yzma, looking like she were about to lose it and blow her top, reached up high above her head and pulled down a purple microphone before screaming into it,

"KRONK!"

Whilst Yzma was shouting into her microphone, the face of her trusted "right-hand man" appeared. Kronk seemed to be jogging at the current moment, quite happy and at peace with the world, though, at the same time, seemed quite serious. Yzma's throaty voice rang through a speaker above Kronk's head and, still smiling, pulled down a replica of the same object Yzma was using.

"Kronk here." Kronk reported through the speaker.

"_I'm getting tired. Pull over!_" Yzma barked through the microphone.

"Sure thing. Kronk out." Pushing the speaker away Kronk adjusted the straps on his shoulders, making sure to secure the long purple tent on his back as he galloped to a stop. Kronk crouched to the ground, head low. Suddenly, the curtains of the tent were parted open and the bone thin form of Yzma appeared at them. Kronk bent over the slightest bit more, as if the Woman standing practically on his shoulders weighed less then a feather. With a crazed, dramatic and exasperated expression all mixed into one, Yzma began to descend from her carriage, her sharp pencil thin shoes digging into Kronk's back, neck and hand as she climbed down caused the heavily built man to yelp and hiss in pain. Still steaming like a kettle Yzma marched down the rest of the path until she came to a puddle of thick mud that she failed to notice.

Struggling to finish her angry march on of the account of her shoes getting stuck in the mud Yzma had to eventually resort to slipping her feet out of them and heave her pointy shoes out of the mud by hand. "Perfect." She growled as she tugged. "These are my best shoes!" With one final heave Yzma managed to rescue her shoes from the solid grip of the mud, but in the meantime managed to get her long purple scarf dipped in the mustard coloued muck.

Noticing this Yzma straightened up and grumbled, "I _hate_ this jungle!" Without thinking the old woman tossed her scarf to the side only to have it swing around her whole body many times over and stop by spluttering in her face. Yzma stood there, the vile taste of wet dirt in her mouth not remotely close to the problem when she found her head submerged in a swarm of buzzing bees.

Meanwhile as Yzma was running away from the bees screaming in terror, Kronk was staring in awe at a multicoloured, puffy bird that seemed to catch his eye. "Oh, look! A golden-throated small-winged warbler." Kronk then pulled a notebook and pen out of his back pocket. "Just one more for exotic bird bingo. I am loving this!"

Back with Yzma, the old woman continued to sprint for her life away from the bees, but her foot getting caught in a vine sticking out of the ground caused the lady to trip and do a nose dive into the mud. Yzma struggled to pull her face out of the tough mud, but eventually managed it and sprang to the surface gasping for air before laughing hysterically.

"No sign of Kuzco anywhere." She muttered. "That – that's good, right? I mean he could be dead after all! If there's no sign of Kuzco that means he's dead and _that_ means I didn't lie to Maleficent and that means _I_ won't be dead..." She laughed again, lifting her torso out of the mud, and continued on muttering, "A world without Kuzco... No sign of Kuzco no way to tell if Kuzco's really dead!"

Yzma was about to slam her face into the mud again but a furry little something jumping into her line of vision stopped her. In front of Yzma stood a fuzzy chestnut coloured squirrel. The little critter batted his eyes cutely at Yzma, holding out a perfect looking acorn to her while squeaking something in his own language. _This_ seemed to do it for the old bag. Yzma's eyes set alight with anger and frustration, and she swung forward toward the little squirrel and roared, "GET AWAY FROM ME!".

The squirrel, Bucky, yelped and cried out in fear, sprinting all the way over to Kronk and ran up his arm. The little squirrel sat trembling behind the large man's neck. Bucky poked his little head over Kronk's shoulder and shouted something in his "squirrel language". Kronk responded to this by nodding his head, agreeing to whatever Bucky was saying – as if he could understand him. Crazy right!

"Yeah. Tell me about it." The squirrel said something else, but Kronk quickly cut in. "No, no, it's not you. She's not the easiest person to get close to. There's a wall there. Trust me."

Meanwhile this was happening, Yzma lifted herself – finally – out of the mud and was staring at her assistant like he was crazy. "Are you talking to that squirrel?"

Kronk broke off from his conversation and turned to Yzma. "I was a junior chipmunk," he explained quite proudly. "I had to be versed in all the woodland creatures." Kronk turned back to the patently waiting Bucky. "Please continue."

As Bucky continued to jabber, Yzma slumped down on a near by rock and massaged her temples, close to tears. "Why me? Why me?" She sobbed.

"Hey, it doesn't always have to be about you!" Kronk called. "This little guy's had it tough." Yzma was about to shout one of the many things that came to mind at the moment to Kronk, one of them somewhere along the lines of "I don't care about how a stupid little filthy jungle animal feels!" before Kronk cut her off by saying, "Seems a talking llama gave him a hard time the other day."

At hearing this, Yzma's eyes shot wide open. She jumped off the rock and was by Kronk and Bucky's side in the blink of an eye. "Oh, a talking llama?" The old lady asked in an almost hysterical tone and chuckled. "Do tell,"

Bucky simply folded his arms and closed his eyes, squeaking something else to Kronk. "What?"

"Uh, he doesn't really wanna talk to you," Kronk explained.

"Well then _you_ ask him."

Kronk sighed, muttering, "I hate being in the middle... Squeaky, uh... squeak, squeaker, squeakin'?" Bucky said something. "Jaguars? No kidding? Brutal. Oh really? Huh."

Yzma eyed them, waiting, "What? What's he saying?"

"Well he says with the talking llama were some kids carrying big, weird key thingies."

Yzma gasped. "This must be that annoying "key-brat" and his lackeys Maleficent told me about..." This was when Yzma noticed the awkward air. "What is it _now_?"

"Uh," Kronk began, "could you give us a little room here?"

Yzma looked between the two. This was her best source for answers at the moment so... "Uh, sorry." The old lady chuckled and stepped backward a few paces. Bucky said something. "A little bit more, please." Kronk translated.

Yzma grumbled and continued to stalk back until she were about 50 feet away from them. "How's this?"

Bucky squeaked.

"Yeah, that's good."

"Now ask him which was the Keyblade Master and the talking llama went!"

"Uh, squeakity-squeak, squeakin'?" Bucky squeaked one word and pointed in the direction he saw the group walking in.

Sora walked along the path with heavy footsteps. His neck was cramping, his back was aching and his arms were one minute away from dropping clean off. Not to mention the long red fur of Kuzco's leg kept tickling his nose and causing him to sneeze. About half an hour ago the group had to stop on the account of a sneeze attack from erupting from Sora. Apparently he may be allergic to llama fur. The swaying movement the tired teenager was taking caused the emperor turned llama sitting on his shoulders to tighten his grip (unfortunately this led to Kuzco grabbing a chunk of Sora's hair) causing Sora to hiss at the sudden pain and the fact that he could feel another sneeze coming along. When it finally came Sora could hear his blood pumping in his veins just _knew_ he had pulled something.

"Low blood sugar, huh?" Sora groaned, almost weeping with joy when he spotted a hut that looked like a restaurant not far up ahead.

"Yeah. It's a curse." Kuzco responded in an, apparently, innocent and totally truthful voice, according to Sora.

As the group reached the top of the hill Sora was practically heaving like a mewl by this point – it's a tough climb with a llama that weighs more then you do on your back. "Uh, Kuzco? Could you get off me now?" Sora almost sobbed.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Kuzco was quite enjoying the ride and was reluctant to get down off the poor boy's shoulders, but once he did Sora celebrated the weight being lifted from his shoulders by collapsing face first into the dirt where he stood. Into the ground he mumbled. "_I'm starving! Can we get a bite to eat, please_?"

Pacha nodded, his own stomach rumbling from simply the _look_ of the hut. "Yeah that sounds good. As soon as we get something to eat, you're walking the rest of the way." Pacha spoke to Kuzco in particular, eyeing the llama down sternly who just smiled innocently back.

"Hey, the kid offered! Since none of _you_ could care less about my – " He pretended to wipe a tear from under his eye " – horrible condition."

Aside, Dan snorted, "_Condition_, my ass."

Next to him Mia placed her hands on her hips accusingly. "You should be ashamed of yourself!" She practically screamed at him. "You could sense how much of a pushover Sora is and you used that to your advantage! Lazy!"

"_Am NOT a push over! Ow – OW! Owowow ahha! Never mind. It hurts to much to care..._" Sora sobbed, his voice rising. Kairi knelt down beside the sulking boy and patted his shoulder blade soothingly.

"Don't worry, Sora." Kairi said. "Didn't I always say that the weight of the worlds would be lifted from your shoulders one of these days?"

"_Ha Ha. Very funny._"

Kairi giggled at his dry tone and helped him to his feet with a couple hisses and groans along the way. Suddenly the menu of the restaurant caught Sora's eye. "Ooh! The special sounds good!"

Kairi pondered this, examining the sign. "Hmm. It sure does, but look at the price!"

"It's not that bad – "

"Sora, we need all the money we have in case of an emergency between the worlds!"

"Bu – but!"

"No buts! You're not ordering it. Besides, you snack on junk food non stop back on the islands every day – its a wonder you're not obese yet!"

Sora gaped at her, eyes wide. "Mmm. But – you – the – I – wa – n – the – I – You're m_ean!_" he whined in quite a child like way that made Kairi giggle even more. The group went on to make their way over to the hut, but when Sora tried to take a single step he ended up crying out in pain.

Dan groaned out of annoyance and marched right up to Sora. Before the poor boy could ask Dan what he was doing, Dan grabbed Sora's shoulder, pushed him one way, another, and then joined his fist with the small of Sora's back. He could have sworn he heard (and felt) something snap.

"Ahh! OW! Oow!" Sora screamed in pain, actually causing some near by birds in trees to flee. Sora clutched his back in pain and Dan just stood there. "WHAT WAS THAT? What was the point of _that_? My back – my back... actually that feels better. Yeah, that-that doesn't hurt any more."

Dan nodded. "Good. You should probably know that there was a thirty-seventy chance that wouldn't have worked."

The goofy grin on Sora's face dropped so fast if Dan blinked he would have missed it. "The good chance was in the seventies...right?"

Dan only chuckled and began walking toward the restaurant, but stopped abruptly in his tracks when he noticed something. "Uh-oh." With that Dan shot straight back over to Sora and spun him around. "You don't want to take another step!"

Sora stumbled over his shoes, trying to regain his footing. "What? Why?" Sora slowly turned his head to behind him and Dan shifted so he was shielding Sora. At the entrance of the hut were a group of at least five shady looking men, each holding a replica of the sepia poster Sora hid in his pocket.

When the others noticed the same thing their eyes widened – although Kuzco and Pacha were left slightly confused. "We can't go over there!" Kairi whispered.

"Oh, what a shame." They all turned to Kuzco, who spoke. "Well, see you in 'bout half an hour. C'mon, big guy, I'm starving." Kuzco turned away, a smug grin on his mouth, and began trotting over to the restaurant.

Dan looked to the roof, "Uh, fluffy, you might wanna look again."

"Hmm?" Kuzco stopped in his tracks and turned to the teenager, who merely shrugged and pointed toward the roof of the hut. Kuzco and Pacha both stared at the little sign of a llama with a thick red line through it in utter disbelief. "Great, now none of us can eat!"

"Not necessarily." Mia walked in front of every one, a mischievous smile plastered on her lips. "I have an idea."

"Welcome to Mudka's Meat Hut, home of the mug..." The woman's dry, monotoned voice trailed off from reciting the one line that she probably has had to say every minute of every day she has worked there to analyse the group of six that were squeezed into the booth. Kuzco noticed the woman's eyes on him and the llama in turn giggled nervously, in a voice much to high. "...Of meat."

This was the situation. After realising that neither Sora and Co. or Kuzco and Pacha were able to enter the restaurant without causing a huge scene which would land them arrested of kicked out by their backsides or worse, Mia disappeared to the back of the hut after announcing her "ingenious and full proof solution". Which, moments later, when the group were greeted by the lovely calming and reassuring sound of metal colliding with a human skull, Mia emerged from around the corner wearing a wide smug smile, arms full of oversized poncho's and caps. She then decided to put Sora (quite against his will) into an oversized blue poncho with brown rims that dangled all the way down to his calf's and covered the majority of his arms. She also tucked his crown necklace under the fabric, made him change his "ridiculously huge and bright shoes that would still stick out even if a clown was wearing them" with plain brown boots she "borrowed", and hid his spiky mane under a brown cap similar the Pacha's. As for Kuzco the girl simply just made Pacha give his green poncho and hat to him, fluffed up his hear to make it look curly and smothered his lips with some lipstick she snatched off of some woman.

The waitress sighed an continued reciting her script, "What'll it be?"

The four teens hid behind their menu's, forcing Pacha and Kuzco to go first. Pacha laughed twice and set the menu down. "We'll have two specials. Is that all right, dear?"

Kuzco smiled, fanning himself with yet another accessory Mia found. "Oh, whatever you say, pumpkin. You know what I like."

_This_ earned a snicker or two from the teenagers. Pacha glared before zapping back into character. Pacha chuckled in return and told the waitress, "We're on our honeymoon."

"Bless you for coming out in public." At this Sora and Dan both sunk deeper into their menu's to hide the laughter that just erupted from both boys. Mia and Kairi glared and kicked them under the table, Kairi mouthing "Grow up!".

The waitress sighed again and jotted the order down on her note pad. "So that's two specials..."

"And an onion log!" Kuzco quickly added, momentarily dropping character. When the llama realised his mistake he fanned himself again and fixed, "To split." Kuzco giggled again and batted his eyelashes.

The woman stared blankly. "Right. And you?"

Dan cleared his throat and sat up straight again, examining the menu the one more time. The guardian hesitated. Nothing on this menu he had seen or heard of before, and the whole right side sounded like something a human would not even go near let alone _eat! _Dan lifted only his eyes up to Mia for help, but she too was staring at the folder in utter disbelief. Knowing ordering whatever he saw first would be a _very_ bad idea, Dan did what he did best.

"We'll have what they're having." He motioned to himself and Mia then pointed at Sora and Kairi.

Sora glared and Kairi shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Um, you know I'm not really that hungry, so – "

"We'll have four specials!" Sora cut Kairi off and the waitress jotted down the order before she could say anything. The lady nodded, took the menus and turned to walk back to the kitchen, shouting to the chef on her way, "Ordering! I need two heartburns and a deep-fried doorstop on table 12!" As soon as she was out of sight the entire group burst into hysterics, earning a few weird glances from other costumers.

"Ok," Dan said to Mia once the laughter died down. "Okay, so I'll admit this was a good idea."

"When will you learn that all my ideas are good ones?" She rolled her eyes.

Kuzco coughed a laugh of agreement. "Finally! _Someone_ who understands what it's like to be right all the time but never getting the appreciation!"

Pacha scoffed, "You always have good ideas?"

"Yes."

"That's funny, because I thought that you going into the jungle by yourself, being chased by jaguars, lying to me to take you back to the palace were all really bad ideas."

"Oh, yeah. Anything sounds bad when you say it with that attitude!" Kuzco exclaimed.

Kairi folded her arms and glared at Sora accusingly. "Y'know you're paying for all this right?"

"Yes, _Princess_." Sora answered almost automatically, causing Kairi to blush slightly at him calling her 'Princess'. "Do any of you have any idea what I just ordered us?"

"Nope." Kairi, Mia and Dan answered simultaneously. Sora nodded and leaned back in his chair, placing his hands behind his head. "We may be here for a while."

"Meaning get comfortable." Next to Sora Dan finished, his green eyes locked tight on the group of bounty hunters sitting at the bar. "Because we're not leaving until _they_ clear out."

Mia sighed and reached forward across the table, cupping Dan's chin and forcing him to look at her. "Relax a little, will ya? You're way too serious with your job."

"I am not too serious,"

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Are."

"Not."

"Are."

"Not."

"Are."

"Not."

"_Are_."

"Fine!" Dan exclaimed. "I'll loosen up a little." Dan then narrowed his eyes at her playfully and rested his chin on his hands, a cheeky smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. "You know, this is our first date."

Mia bit her lip and looked away, hiding the slow blush appearing on her cheeks. "That's not what I meant." She hissed. Dan laughed at her and leaned back in his seat next to Sora, who in turn grinned at how red Mia's face was becoming.

"Aw, you know you love me." Mia rolled her bright eyes and decided to ignore him altogether. Sora and Dan laughed at this before Sora leaned forward and whispered to Kairi,

"Hey, Kairi?"

The red-head turned, "Yes?"

Sora hesitated, fiddling with his fingers before taking a deep breath and continuing, "Listen...about last night..."

"Forget it." This caught Sora off guard. The boy's head shot up to see Kairi smiling at him with warm eyes.

"What?"

She giggled softly, "I think we both should just forget everything. Ok?"

_That was easy _"Um, sure, yeah." Sora chuckled and straightened up again. Sora and Kairi's eyes were still locked tight on each other when the waitress returned with their meals. The lady set their plates down in front of them and announced in the same "I'd rather die then be here" tone, "Hot and crispy pill bug for the happy couple and others." With a quick flip of her wrist a hand full of confetti flew into the air. A sudden gust of wind flew through the diner, ergo causing all the confetti to swoop toward Sora, smothering the poor boy and some landing in his mouth.

"Museltof." With that the lady sulked away.

The six examined the...thing on their plates with mixed emotions. Pacha smiled and rubbed his hands together. Sora got over his disgust quickly, but the other four gagged ad pushed their plates away.

"Oh, boy." Pacha sighed and used a straw beside his meal. With a slight tap on the roof of the bug the entire thing unrolled, revealing all the guts and whatever else their was. At the sight of this Kuzco gagged and flinched away in disgust. Sora followed soon after and was using the straw to slurp up all the contents of the bug. Pacha saw how Kuzco, Mia, Dan ad Kairi were not touching their bugs and reached forward with his straw.

"Oh, here. Let me get that for you." Pacha whacked all their pill bugs and all uncurled, steaming hot and crispy. All covered their mouths to stop from throwing up and pushed their plates away even further.

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." Mia sighed. Kairi was staring amazingly at how Sora was slurping down the bug like there was no tomorrow. The Kuzco, deciding he couldn't take any more, got up out of his seat and began making his was toward the kitchen.

When Pacha noticed this his eyes widened and he called out after the llama, "Hey, hey! Where are you going?"

"I'm just going to slip into the kitchen and have a word with the chef." Kuzco responded over his shoulder.

"You're gonna get us thrown out,"

"Please," Kuzco scoffed. "With this disguise, I'm invisible." With that the llama disappeared through the doors.

"Maybe getting thrown out wouldn't be such a bad thing..." Dan muttered as he continued the massage his temples. Sora finished his pill bug and said to the others, "You know, looks aside, this is surprisingly delicious. Try it."

"We're good, thanks, Sora." Kairi responded half heartedly.

Behind the remaining five a certain lady in purple and large man slipped into the other booth, going unnoticed by the group. "We've been walking around in circles for who knows how long." Pacha heard Yzma hiss, but paid her no mind and continued to finish his lunch. "That is the last time I take directions from a squirrel!"

Sora's ear then caught on to the conversation as well, "I should have done away with Kuzco myself when I had the chance!"

At this both Pacha and Sora's eyes widened and began chocking on their food.

"Ugh. Jeez, Sora." Kairi spoke. "That's a healthy cough. I told you not to slurp down that thing so fast." When the coughing died down Sora and Pacha both sunk into their seats.

"What?" Dan asked, sensing the tension. Sora in response jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, motioning for them to listen.

"Oh, you really gotta stop beating yourself up about that." They heard Kronk say. Yzma, in her fit of fury, took her fork in a tight grasp and bent the entire thing in half. It fell on the table with a _**clank**_. "Uh-oh. I'll get you another one there, Yzma."

Kronk then turned and tapped Pacha on the shoulder, asking friendlily, "You using that fork, pal?" Pacha answered by simply handing his fork to Kronk, all the while hiding his face. "Thanks." Kronk handed the fork to Yzma and turned back, "Hey, don't I know you?"

"I don't think so," Pacha stammered.

"Wrestled you in high school?"

Pacha shook his head, "Don't remember that."

Kronk tried again, "No? Metal shop?"

"Um, no..."

Kronk then perked up and snapped his fingers. "Got it! Miss Narca's interpretive dance... two semesters." Sora, Dan, Mia and Kairi knitted their eyebrows strangely at this. "I was usually in the back because of my weak ankles. Come on, pal. You gotta help me out here!"

Pacha shifted uncomfortably and looked to Sora for help. Sora straightened up and said the first thing that came to his mind all in one breath. "Um, I don't think you've ever met, sir, but me and...my...dad...are, sort of, regular costumers here so that's probably where you've, yeah. Also he's got one of those faces and was home schooled in another part of the kingdom. So no you've never met, but, look, we've gotta go." With that the five stumbled out of the booth and toward the kitchen, Sora tripping on his poncho along the way and almost doing a face plant into the dirt.

"Don't worry, I'll think of it!" Kronk called after them.

"'Home schooled in another part of the kingdom'?" Dan repeated.

"I panicked!"

"Look, all I know is the food looked iffy. All right? And I'm not the only one that thinks that, I'm sure." Kuzco voiced his thoughts to the chef of Mudka's Meat Hut, who gritted his teeth in frustration and stirred angrily at the pot off soup he was cooking. Just then the five burst through the door, almost toppling over each other in the proses.

"Psst! Hey!" Pacha tried to gain Kuzco's attention, but was utterly ignored.

"So I'm just checking to make sure that you're gonna take the main course up a notch."

Yzma stared amazingly at the menu, her eyes knitted tight together, "Is there anything on this menu that is _not_ swimming in gravy?"

Kronk shrugged and made to get out of his seat, "Hang on. I'll go ask the chef."

Sora peaked one eye through the door whilst behind him Pacha and Dan were trying their hardest to haul Kuzco away, only to see Kronk waltzing over to him at that exact moment. His eyes widened in shock and Sora slammed the door shut, running over and joining in with the hauling.

Kuzco resisted, but "Is there or is there not anything edible on this menu?" was the last thing the emperor turned llama managed before he was being carried through the doors of the kitchen. Suddenly the entire five tables in the back of the diner flooded into the main part, surrounding Kuzco, Pacha, Sora, Kairi, Mia and Dan and cutting them off from each other. The group pushed through the crowds with simple "pardon me"s and "excuse me"s or "coming through"s. After what seemed like forever the group managed to make it to the doors.

"Hey, I didn't ask him about dessert yet!" Kuzco complained as Dan was pushing him through the crowd. The group burst through the doors, surprisingly happy that that crowd of people appeared out of nowhere, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to get of there without being noticed my Yzma, Kronk or the group of bounty hunters. "What are you doing?" Kuzco managed when Dan set him down on all his legs after running around the back exit of Mudka's.

Sora sighed, adjusting his large poncho that had been stepped on a dozen times trying to get out of there (at least twice by himself). "Look," He began to Kuzco. "Look, there's two people in there looking for you!"

"What?" Kuzco gasped,

"Yeah, a big guy and a skinny old woman." Dan finished.

"Wait, wait," Kuzco backed up, "Was this woman scary beyond all reason?"

"I guess you could say that," Mia answered.

Kuzco laughed in relief. "That's Yzma and Kronk. I'm saved!"

Kairi shook her head, looking at Kuzco in an almost apologetic way, "Trust me, they're not here to save you." Although she was ignored by the llama, who had began talking to himself again with a far away look in his eye.

"They'll take me back to the palace... Thanks for all your help. You've been great. I can take it from here." Kuzco then made to walk around the five and back into the diner but was stopped by Pacha, "No, no, you don't understand. They're trying to kill you!"

Kuzco coughed a laugh, "Kill me? Their whole world revolves around me!" and started walking again. Sora reached forward and secured the llama in a tight grasp.

"No, no! We can't let you!"

Kuzco struggled in the boys arms, "What? Wha... Oh! Oh, I get it." Sora frowned in confusion and let go.

"What do you get?" Pacha asked.

Kuzco narrowed his eyes accusingly at the peasant, "You don't want to take me back to the palace – You want to keep me stranded out here forever!"

"What?" Pacha gasped. "No!"

"This has all been an act, and I almost fell for it..." Kuzco sobbed.

"Will you just listen to me – "

"No, no, you listen to me. All you care about is your-your stupid hilltop!" At this Sora felt the fury build up inside him and blood boil with anger. The Keyblade Master stepped out in front of Pacha, glaring at Kuzco furiously. "Hey! That "stupid hilltop" happens to be his home!" Sora practically screamed at the llama, startling not only Kuzco but everyone else. "A home that him and his family have lived in for _years_! You're plotting to take children out of their home and you're saying _he's_ selfish? How would you like it if I came over one day and destroyed your palace?" Sora's keyblade flashed in his hand without his approval.

"Sora!" Kairi gasped and attempted to pull him away with no prevail. Sora's feet were nailed firmly to the round.

"You are out of line, kid." Kuzco glared back, shifting slightly backward at the sight of Sora's murder weapon.

"Oh, _I'm_ out of line?" Sora yelled. "You are the one thinking of no one but himself. I don't care if you are the Emperor, you have _no_ rite to do this to another person!" He screamed. "You think you're better then everyone else, Kuzco, but you're wrong. And I was actually stupid enough to think you could help anyone but yourself."

Kuzco gritted his teeth together and exploded at Sora. "FINE! I don't need your help. Why do I need three kids a peasant and a brat who thinks he knows everything with me? I can do just fine by myself!" Pacha gritted his teeth at Kuzco calling him a peasant again. "Go on! Get out of here!"

"FINE!" Sora and Pacha roared together before stalking off back to the path. Kuzco glared in anger and turned and climbed back up the stair they came from, leaving the remaining three dumbstruck and wondering what in the world just happened. Kairi looked at Sora's retreating figure with confusion. _...What was that just now?_

After a quick glance Mia, Kairi and Dan ran to catch up with Sora and Pacha.

**

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**

Well, there was the next chapter. I am going to cut out a portion of this movie because I don't really want it to drag on more then five chapters.

"**Bless you for coming out in public." I LOOVE that line! Favourite in the movie. "His eyes widened in shock and Sora slammed the door shut" Wow that's a mouthful. I hope you'll keep reading to find out what happens next!**

**If anyone has any theories on who Mia, Dan or the Twilight Prince may be, I'd be glad to hear them. **

**I have nothing more to say. **

**Please review. **

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	23. Mirrors

**Hey. Sorry about the late update. **

**Disclaimer stands.**

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Chapter 23: Mirrors.

Sora growled in frustration when his ridiculously large poncho Mia had decided to shove him in once again wound around his ankles, causing the young keyblader to almost take a nose dive into the dirt...again. As if Kuzco didn't push his buttons enough – now _this_? With a fist full of cotton Sora attempted to pull the stupid smock over his head, when a firm hand over his fist protested and yanked the poncho back down. Sora, hot and frustrated under all those layers of clothing (I mean really, did those fairies have to make these garments with such thick fabric) and shot Dan a death glare.

"These jungles are full of bounty hunters – keep it on." Sora voiced no response, simply readjusted his hat and marched further into the trees before anyone could stop him. Next to him Pacha was walking in a slightly calmer waltz. Pacha turned to Sora and spoke in a surprisingly gentle tone.

"Hey, Sora. What you said back there...thank you." Sora seemed to calm slightly, "At least I know there's good in _you_."

Sora smiled bitterly and was about to give the man a response when Mia and Kairi came running up to him, shouting his name. Before Mia could utter one single word, Kairi shouted, "That was out of line!"

"He's out of line!" Sora spun around so fast Kairi crashed into him. "He had absolutely no right to say things like that!"

"And you did?" Kairi yelled back, "Threatening to go and destroy his home, Sora? What was that?"

Sora frowned, trying to compose himself. "You know what I meant."

"No, I don't," She shook her head, sighing, "What _was_ that? That was nothing like you, that's what!"

"I don't have time for this." Sora made to turn back around and continue walking but got about half way before Kairi grabbed his wrist. When Sora turned back to Kairi she had to stop herself from gasping when she saw Sora's eyes were a couple darker shades of blue then usual. Before either of the two could say anything else Mia pushed in between then.

"Enough," She pushed on Sora's chest. "We don't need another argument. _Right_, Sora?" Mia said sternly before turning back around to fine only empty air. "Sora! Where are you going?"

"Back to the palace gates to wait for another stupid door to show up!" Sora called over his shoulder.

Dan made to chase after him. "You don't even know where you're going!"

Sora threw his arm forward, "Palace is this way,"

"He's right." Pacha confirmed. Dan sighed, "Better follow him before he gets us all lost." When the four finally caught up with Sora again, Pacha spoke, "Hey, we should probably stop off at my house to get some more supplies before heading to the palace."

Sora sighed and finally stopped walking, "Fine."

**oooooooooooooooo**

Kuzco marched around the corner of Mudka's Meat Hut clumsily, still not quite used to the whole "four legs" thing. The llama scoffed, "Can you believe that jerk?" Kuzco stopped in his tracks when the familiar throaty hiss that was Yzma's voice buzzed through his new ears.

"Oh, this entire mess is all your fault." Yzma growled, ripping a giant sombrero off her head and brushing a pile of confetti off her shoulders – Kuzco wasn't sure he wanted to know what happened in that diner.

"What'd I do?" Kronk exclaimed.

"If you hadn't mixed up those poisons, Kuzco would be dead now!"

The emperor gasped in shock, eyes going wide as he hid further in the shadows behind a fern.

"There'll be no more diversions until we track that llama down and kill him!"

"I said I was sorry." Kronk tried to reason as he balanced that large birthday cake with over a hundred candles burning. "Can't just let it go, not even on your birthday."

"Kuzco must be eliminated!" The llama shook his head unbelievably. "The empire will finally be rid of that useless slug."

"Well, you got a point." Kronk agreed. "Nobody really seems to care that he's gone, do they?" Kuzco gasped, staring at two people he once thought his friends with sad eyes. With one final glance Kuzco burst back into the trees the direction Pacha and Sora marched off.

"Pacha!" Kuzco looked from one direction to another for any sign of him. "Pacha!" When he found no one Kuzco jumped atop a large log to get a better view of his surroundings.

"Sora?" Kuzco sighed, upset with himself and closed his eyes.

**oooooooooooooooo**

Dusk had finally fallen over the empire and deep within the woods was a small camp site. On the cold stone ground two tents were set up; one big and one...well, _tiny_. Kronk lay sound asleep clutching a brown teddy bear wearing the same exact night cap with the yellow puff ball as himself. Barely a foot high and covering only his legs was the smallest tent ever made, but still this did not seem to bother the man one bit.

Ironically Yzma slept just as comfortably in his humongous tent. In between snores Kronk would occasionally mutter incoherently, until his eyes flashed wide and he shot up off the ground, gasping, "The peasant...at the diner!" Kronk stared at his teddy dramatically for seconds before calming and whispering, "He didn't pay his check."

Satisfied, Kronk fell back down fast asleep again. Only to shoot back up seconds later. "He's the peasant who I saw leaving the city who disappeared into the crowd with Kuzco on the back of his cart." He gasped loudly. "He must have taken him back to his village, so if we find the village, we find him...and if we find him, we find Kuzco."

Kronk smiled, proud of himself, "Oh, yeah. It's all comin' together."

Kronk shot out of his "tent" and yanked open the curtains to Yzma's tent. "Yzma!"

"What?" The old lady snapped, leaving Kronk to cry out in horror at the green mud mask and cucumbers over her eyes. "This had better be good!"

**oooooooooooooooo**

Kuzco sulked along a path leading to one of the many villages that surrounded his palace, nose running and fur damp from last nights thunder storm. The emperor turned llama kept on walking, on a road that was not at all familiar to him – he couldn't even still be in the kingdom for all he knew – until a mountain side meadow filled with dozens of llamas came into view. Kuzco stopped to examine the scenery before sighing in great sadness and began making his way over to the large, open field.

Once he was over the short bridge Kuzco walked over to one group of llamas who were casually eating the grass below them. All the llamas stopped abruptly and turned to Kuzco, who beamed happily at them and lifted a paw in a sort of waving gesture. The llamas in turn were not pleased by this and, as if being able to sense he was not like them, all glared harshly at the emperor before turning away and going to finish their breakfast as far away from Kuzco as possible.

Kuzco lowered his head, chest fallen, feeling as though this_ own kind _even hated him. Kuzco sighed and picked a fresh spot of grass before bending down and ripping an entire mouthful. Although, after chewing the contents didn't even get past his throat when Kuzco spat them out in disgust, but forced himself to take another bite.

"..._So there we were standing on the cliff_..." Kuzco's ears straightened up at the familiarity of the voice in the distance and he smiled in pure happiness. "...and the ground started to rumble."

Kuzco looked around for the source of the voice for what seemed like centuries to the llama until he finally found it, "And just as it started to go, he grabbed me before I fell." A whole group of llamas cleared out to reveal Pacha sitting cross legged on the group venting to a couple llamas who seemed to be listening intently, Dan sitting similarly not too far away looking very board whilst fiddling and pulling at some blades of grass, Mia laying on her back in front of him using her arms as a pillow with wheat in her mouth, Kairi petting a small baby llama and Sora simply laying there gazing at the clouds, daydreaming.

Pacha continued, "Do you believe that? You know, call me crazy for following this guy all the way out here, but as much as he tries to deny it, I know there's some good in him." Pacha paused to look over to a giggling Kairi, where the little baby llama had jumped into her lap and was trying to lick her cheek. Kairi laughed as she attempted to push it away, but the happy baby jumped off and pranced around in a circle before pouncing on Sora. Sora had the wind knocked out of him when the little llama landed on his stomach. Sora jerked up and chuckled as he pretended to miss to catch the little baby llama.

On the other side Mia lifted herself up into a sitting position. Seeing Dan distracted by the very entertaining blades of grass, she took the long piece of wheat out of her mouth and poked it in his ear. This caused Dan to flinch and snatch the wheat off of her and began wagging in it her face, neck and shoulders so it tickled her. Mia giggled and tried to dodge the wheat and before they knew it the two were engaged in a tug-of-war game. Dan finally gave up and Mia snatched it off him, laughing and shifting around to rest her head on Dan's chest, who in turn wrapped his arms around her waist.

Pacha smiled at the two couples. "Besides, I couldn't just leave him out here all alone." He continued and Kuzco felt his heart plummet to his stomach, "He's a lousy llama. I mean, a really lousy llama." Pacha smiled when he caught Kuzco's eyes. Sora stopped playing with the little llama and straightened up, handing him to Kairi.

Kuzco took a deep breath, "What I said to you back at the diner, that-that..." He also addressed Sora, "I-I didn't really... you were right to..."

Sora shook his head, cutting Kuzco off. "So," he began, "you tired of being a llama?"

Kuzco felt his eyes begin to water and his bottom lip quiver before bursting into tears right then and there. "Ye-he-he-heees!" He sniffed.

Mia and Dan separated out of their comfortable position and got to their feet, Kairi following soon after. Kuzco was rambling now, "Listen, you were right out Yzma – she's trying to kill me!"

Pacha nodded, "Okay, we're just gonna stop at the house and get some supplies." They all began moving off in the direction of Pacha's village – which was just up the hill.

"And then we'll be on our way right?"

"Yeah!"

**ooooooooooooooooo**

The group almost went tumbling when they arrived at the foot of the hill Pacha's hut sat on. The four teenagers jaws dropped when they took in the steepness and amount of steps they had to climb, remembering Pacha saying that his home was on the very highest hill.

"Oh come on!" Dan groaned.

"Hey there, Pacha." Came from the side and the group turned to see two elderly men sitting in front of a checkers board on the lowest hut of the hill. "Hey, you know, you just missed your relatives."

Pacha frowned in confusion. "My relatives?"

"Yeah," The one on the left nodded, "We just sent 'em to your house."

They all shared a glance. "What did they look like?" Kairi asked.

"Well, you see, there was this big guy and this older woman who was, uh... How would you describe her?" The man on the right asked his friend.

"Scary beyond all reason."

"Yeah, that's it!" He snapped his fingers.

Sora thanked the men and before they knew it the group were dashing madly up the unbelievably high stairs. Sora was heaving by the time they reached the top, "I need to do more exercise... This is ridiculous!" Kairi helped Sora to his feet just as Pacha ran out the back and peeked through the window. His wife was engaged in a conversation with a very old and bone thin woman who he was guessing was Yzma. Pacha waved his arms around to gain her attention.

"I'm sure he'd love to show you the..." Pacha's wife, Chicha, widened her eyes in shock when she saw him. "Uh, excuse me, won't you? I think I left something in the oven!" With that she dashed over to the back room. Whilst Pacha dashed over to the window to explain to his wife what was going on – with Kuzco silently trailing behind – the teenagers ran down the side of the hill to wait at the gate Pacha instructed them to wait at. Behind them the group heard some sort of chant and stealthily walked over to the window to see Kronk in the middle of two kids they guessed was Pacha's children, singing whilst jumping two ropes simultaneously, "_Ninety-nine monkeys __jumpin' on the bed. One fell off a__nd bumped his head."_

Dan shook his head slowly, "What a pansy," consequently earning yet another smack from Mia. Dan winced, "You know, one day you're gonna tire of that."

The red-head giggled evilly, "Never."

Just then Pacha came sprinting around the corner and down the slight incline, to the gate where all the llamas are kept in one large paddock stood. He had a slightly dazed Kuzco under his arm and Sora noticed a rising bump begin to make itself noticed atop the llama emperors head. He wasn't going to ask what happened. "Go, go, go!" Pacha called. Kairi unhooked the gate and before they knew it the six of the were sprinting down a hill that was becoming steeper and steeper by the second.

Sora especially had the most difficulty at the current moment, on the account his poncho getting in the way of his feet. I guess it also didn't help much that his brown cap was shifting position every step he took, slowly creeping into his line of vision. "Loosing footing, Loosing footing, Loosing footing..." Sora muttered to himself, only moments before he accidentally treaded on that stupid blue good for nothing "disguise" Mia gave him. Sora cried out as the ground came rushing toward him in frightening speed and sent him tumbling the rest of the way down.

"Sora!" Kairi shouted, listening to the various "Oomph! Ah! Ow! Back! Elbow! Shoulder!"s that came from Sora in his decent. Sora gave one final cry before landing in a puddle of mud at the bottom of the hill. The Keyblade master winced as he massaged his throbbing skull whilst asking himself (or at least, Roxas) "_Why me?_".

An animalistic mixed with a demonic growl sounded from directly above Sora's head, and the boy hesitantly opened one eye only to see a Jaguar Heartless growling, teeth bared and all, staring down at him.

Sora's eyes widened, "Uh, he he... Hi?" The Heartless' only response was to swing its mighty sharp claws down to the ground, swiping the earth where Sora's head was only heartbeats ago. At this point in time the others had finally managed to reach the bottom of the hill. Mia, Kairi and Dan were readying their weapons, but Pacha and Kuzco widened their eyes in fear at the sight of the deformed jungle cat – never seeing anything quite like it before.

Dan sighed, "You just attract a whole lot of the wrong attention to yourself, don't cha?"

"Don't act like this is my fault!" Sora hissed back as he stumbled to his feet.

"It is your fault – we were going so well!"

"No," Sora shook his head before pointing at the jaguar, sticking his hand a little too close to its mouth. "_This _is my fault, but – " Sora moved his hand away to point elsewhere, not noticing when the Heartless tried to take a chomp our of his arm " – _that_ isn't."

The others hesitated in turning around, on the account of Sora's fearful tone. When they finally did they all found themselves confronted by a behemoth size Ghost, slowly creeping out of the darkest points of the jungle. At the sight of the ugly creature Pacha and Kuzco screamed in fear – even the Heartless didn't stick around to see how this would end. Dan roared at the two to get behind them whilst Mia yelled at Sora to move into the sun.

"What is it?" Kairi whispered to Mia as they all slowly backed away.

"Level D." She answered, voice like ice.

Next to Sora Kuzco shivered, "Shouldn't we be getting out of view?"

It was Dan who answered the question, "No. Right now the safest place to be is in the sun. Level D Ghosts aren't like the others – that can stay out in the sun for a short amount of time. D's are completely confined to the darkness and any amount of sun, even the smallest rays, can destroy it instantly. As long as we slowly – WHERE THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, SORA?"

Sora froze mid step in place startled at the way the Ghosts growled at Dan's outburst. The Keyblade Master shut his eyes and sighed, placing his foot back on the ground, turned away from the Ghost and back to the others. "I'm going to try and lead it out into the sun."

"Are you that demented?" Dan practically roared. Mia squeezed his arm to calm him down. "Those things are intelligent, kid. It's not going to let you even get two meters close to it before it tears you to shreds!"

"I'm not going to just let that roam around at night killing whoever it comes across!" Sora moved closer again. Kairi held her breath and gripped her keyblade tighter, her feet tingling and ready to pounce after Sora to help.

"Then you'll be the first." The brunette spoke in a calmer tone. "I'm a guardian, Sora. I've been studying these things since I can't remember when. I have had first hand training with them. I know how they fight, who quickly they move – and how they _always_ go for the kill." Dan lifted his hand to the left side of his forehead and move the locks of hair out of the way, "I've got the scars to prove it," Along his skin, trailing in a diagonal notion beginning from just above his eyebrow to the roots of his jet hair was a pinkish-brown scar. Sora noticed how it was slightly thicker in one small place further above.

Dan continued, "My job is not to lead people _to_ those things, it's to protect people _from_ them. Well, mainly little miss ungrateful here but that's beside the point. Let me tell you that no one who has gone up against a level D Ghost has ever lived to tell the tale. Just leave it!"

Sora stared into the eyes of the eyes of the beast, and for a second, almost believed it was staring back. They were like mirrors, almost. Sora could make out the faint outline of his himself in the middle of those cold, murderous eyes. He could hear Kairi saying something to him behind but it was all just a distant buzz as Sora kept staring into those cold, dead yellow eyes.

"_Sora, be logical: you'll get killed."_

"_You are the one always looking for a good fight, Roxas."_

There was a sigh at the back of Sora's head. _"That's true," _He admitted,_ "But we have bigger problems right now this this Ghost. Sora. Sora! Are you listening? What the heck is wrong with you?"_

"Just shut up and mind your own business!" Sora roared back to his nobody, unaware that he had actually spoken the words. Under his poncho Sora's crown pendant burned hot against his chest. His feet were moving forward on their own accord and he felt his eyes and palms begin to sting. Sora had almost reached the forest when a pair of hands on his chest stopped him dead in his tracks. Kairi pushed on Sora's chest trying to stop him from walking any further.

"Sora don't. Please." Kairi pleaded, staring up into his eyes. When Sora met her gaze she failed to notice the small flecks around his pupil shine gold for a millisecond. "Don't." She whispered again, this time so only the boy in front of her could hear. "It's not worth it. We need to stick to the mission at hand."

Sora closed his eyes, and when finally re-opened them, all dark feelings were gone. Roxas was even silent, listening intently whilst he sat in the centre of his giant mural. Roxas noticed the smallest flicker of light ahead in the clouded abyss. The blonde frowned and stood up, moving toward it. Even though Sora had told him not to go anywhere while they were on worlds he still needed to explore and see what it was. And if worst came to worst and he found himself in some dark, creeping and unfamiliar place, he could just teleport back to Sora's mural and everything would be the same as it always was: boring.

Back in reality Sora blinked down at the girl in front of him. "Huh?" All he could feel was a slight pounding in his head and the distant sound of footsteps, but paid neither any mind.

Roxas tilted his head to the side. As he came closer to the light he could see it expanding, and in the centre a picture beginning to be painted. "What?" Roxas breathed. He could see two things: the clear image in front of him, and the foggy picture of what was going on through Sora's eyes. Roxas saw Kairi give one final push of Sora's chest. Whilst dong this she slid her hand the slightest bit upward where she lightly traced over his heart.

That did it.

The light ahead of Roxas burst outward in every singly colour imaginable so bright that he had to shield his eyes. When the light finally dimmed Roxas was able to move his arm from his face and to open his eyes – only to gasp at what he saw.

Namine.

Namine standing right in front of him...right on the other side of the portal. Staring back at him with the exact same look on her face.

Roxas felt his heart do flips in his chest as he stared at the girl he had been trying to find a way to get in touch with for an entire year. A slow smile began to creep its way onto Roxas' lips before he started laughing with pure happiness.

"Namine!" He shouted. On the other side he saw her lean forward and open her mouth, shouting something to him. No words came out. Roxas frowned, "What?" he shouted back. Namine knitted her eyebrows and said something else. Roxas shook his head, pointing to his ear before back at her, "I can't hear you!". Namine shook her head ans shrugged.

Roxas huffed at looked around. He then noticed something.

"Come on, Sora." Kairi smiled.

Sora blinked a few more times and shook his head, trying to clear it. "Right, yeah."

Roxas stood back and called to Namine, "Hold on! Oh, and stand back, too!" Namine frowned again, but Roxas' hand signals got through to her. Namine half ran back into the centre of her mural. Roxas did the same – he needed to get a good run up if he was going to make this jump.

Sora turned slightly, "I- I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

Roxas took in a deep breath and began counting down from three, when finally reaching one he dashed off toward the light.

"Let get moving. We don't have much time to loose." Mia said watching as all the others nodded. With one final glance with Sora Kairi removed her hand from Sora's chest.

Roxas pushed off into empty air when he finally ran out ground. Right then he knew something was wrong. The light around the portal wasn't shining as brightly as it was before and the picture had become blurry. Roxas felt a strong stab of fear pierce his heart, receiving one final shout from Namine before the portal gave off one final flash and disappeared completely. Roxas screamed as he fell into the dark depths of the abyss.

Sora clenched his fists in worry, not quite sure why though. In the distance a long scream of fright erupted all around the hills surrounding them, similar to the one him and Pacha heard the night before at the waterfall.

"What's that?" Pacha asked.

Sora sighed, "There's those dang bats again." Kairi, Mia, Dan and Kuzco stared at the teenager strangely before shaking it off and continued heading in the direction they were, ruling the jungle out as means of a short cut.

**

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**

Hey! Now it's easy to say that this is not one of my best chapters, and it just took soooooo long to finish!

**A few weeks ago when I asked if anyone had any theories on Mia, Dan or the Twilight Prince I received some interesting answers. Well, for those applies (yes, it replies to all of them) I'm not saying that they are right but I'm not saying that they're wrong either. I don't wanna give away any spoilers!**

**That's all I have to say. **

**Please Review. **

**Oooo**

**o o**

**o**


	24. StandOff

**Hello! Sorry for the late update. **

**I don't really have anything to say so I'll just get straight to the point, plus I REEEALY want to get through this world. **

**Disclaimer stands. **

**Enjoy!**

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Tired blue eyes forced themselves open, shock mixed with realisation flooding through them as a blonde boy strained his throbbing arms to lift him from the cold glass plinth under him, hissing in pain along the way. With shaky arms, Roxas exhaustingly gave up on attempting footing at the moment and simply rolled over to lay on his back, panting whilst he waited for the pain to pass.

_It hurts. _Roxas thought. _Who'd have thought things can actually _hurt_ in here..._ The Nobody took another deep, calming breath and shut his eyes, slowly exhaling. After a few more straining moments Roxas' eyes snapped back open, on the account of a pained groan erupting close by him. Ignoring when his muscle screamed in protest, Roxas pulled himself into a sitting position just as his eyes landed on a figure three feet away from him, crouching on the floor with his head in his hands.

"You know," The person began, "one day you are going to thank me for that. Maybe not today and maybe not tomorrow or the next day or the next or the next – but one day!" The person wagged his pointer finger at where he guessed Roxas sat, "You will thank me."

With a sigh the mysterious person rubbed his eyes with his wrists and slowly rose to his feet, and Roxas almost gasped in shock. "You are one suicidal moron, ain't 'cha?" Roxas had only seen him one before – well it wasn't really _him_, exactly – but that still didn't stop Roxas from staring. Same appearance: long dark hair pulled into a ponytail, cerulean blue eyes...

"You're lucky I got there in time. Do you have any idea how many portals I had to jump through to get to the right mural? I'll give you a hint; I lost count after fifty!"

"Stefan?" Roxas couldn't stop himself from asking. The boy froze, face going blank but at the same time lingered a small amount of shock.

"You know my name..." He processed. "You know my name... You know that really should concern me but...it doesn't." Stefan – real Stefan – simply shrugged with a grin. Roxas noticed that he was different from when The Unnamed One took on his appearance. This one had more of a relaxed and easy air about him, his skin was paler and voice wasn't as deep. Also when Roxas listened carefully he picked up the slightest tinge of a southern accent. There were times when it was noticeable but others when it disappeared completely.

Stefan pointed, "And I'm guessing that since you know my name, you also know who I am,"

Roxas didn't necessarily know how to answer. "Uh...sort of. Is...is it true that you are..." He didn't finish because the thought was too absurd.

Stefan waited before answering. "Do you think I am?" Roxas simply avoided eye contact and shrugged. "I should probably let you know that I know who you are." Stefan pointed to the centre of the mural, where a picture of a sleeping Roxas was drawn, a milky shadow lingering behind him in the figure of Sora. Roxas nodded, processing this.

He turned back after a few moments. "How is it that you're here? Only Sora can visit my station."

Stefan suddenly turned sheepish, "Oh, yeah, about that... I'm a... Hmm..." Stefan trailed off, racking his brain for something and occasionally mumbling a few words before shaking his head. After a while he gave up and spoke again. "The closest translation I have for me is I'm a _walker_."

"A what-what?"

Stefan stared blankly at the boy, "If you don't know what that is I'm not gonna sit here explaining it to you. I don't have time."

"What do you mean you don't have time?" Roxas questioned.

"I can only stay here for a short amount of time, and I need you to pass on a message for me. To Sora." Stefan added.

Roxas tried to get up, but only gave up again when his muscled screamed. "Wait," he began. "If you can visit peoples murals then why don't you just visit Sora's. What do you need me to pass on a message for?"

Stefan shifted his weight from one foot to another and rubbed his forehead. "Yah, about that too, I'm honestly not quite sure. Somethin' 'bout not being able to enter the minds of those who I share DNA with. That's why I can only stay here with you for a short amount of time."

That right there just confirmed it all. "So it's true," Roxas breathed, bewildered.

Stefan nodded, "Yeah. But he doesn't remember me and I need to change that."

Roxas processed everything he had just heard. It still seemed a bit strange to him, but Roxas did search Sora's memories and something about this boy did seem a tinge familiar. Plus, the more Roxas looked at him the more he could pick out the resemblance.

"What's the message?" Roxas finally asked.

Stefan hesitated, as if he was running his message over in his head multiple times to make sure he had it right. It seemed like that to Roxas, but to Stefan he was freaking out on the inside. One slightest little laps in detail could be catastrophic, but at the same time there was a strict limit on the amount of things he could say.

"When the words change..." Stefan paused. "Run."

* * *

"RUN!"

Six pairs of feet pounded against the dirt, struggling to keep themselves at a steady but quick pace. Four of the six had their Keyblades out, sending a beam of energy into the groups of various Heartless whenever necessary. The group were running from two things in particular; one was the Heartless and Nobodies on their tail, constantly trying to rip them to shreds with their sharp claws, and two was a heavily built man and a woman dressed in purple. Which of the two perusers was more threatening they couldn't answer.

"We have to make it to the Palace before Yzma and Kronk!" The emperor turned llama informed, as if they all didn't already know that. Danniel bit back the "Well, duh" forming at his lips just as he spiked another Heartless.

The group twisted corners, jumped over some things, crawled under other things – whatever it took to escape – until finally after what felt like forever, the six finally reached the doors to the oversized house of red and gold (but mostly gold). In one quick instant Kuzco jumped up on his hind legs and, with the strength of ten Kronks, pushed open the Palace doors. Trailing behind the girls finished off the last remaining Heartless' before Pacha, Sora and Dan pulled the gigantic doors shut.

"So...where exactly...did you say...this "secret lab" of...Yzma's was?" Sora breathed, just managing a sentence through pants, hands on knees exhausted from the chase.

This took Kuzco some time to think. Finally a little light went off in his head and Kuzco pointed to some doors on the far side of the room, "Through there!"

The group was off again in an instant, all except for Pacha, who sighed, groaning, "More running?"

Out of the back set of doors to Yzma's secret lab merged a soaking wet Dan, dripping from head to toe in water – icy cold, no doubt – with a crocodile attached to his foot for reasons unknown. With a glare almost as cold as the water, Dan flicked the crocodile in the knows, sending it scampering off whimpering.

"Why does she even _have_ that lever?" The guardian marched over to the stone wall occupied by two mere levers, paying no mind to the remaining three teenagers who were trying to suppress their laughter. "I told you the left, it's _always_ the left!" Dan pulled down on the lever and the group were flipped into the next room by the revolving floor, to land very squished in one small theme park roller-coaster cart.

"_Please remain seated and keep your arms and legs in at all times." _An invisible voice instructed moments before the cart went propelling down the tracks, the teenagers' screams echoing through the tunnel. Seconds later they were flung out of the cart and landed safely on two feet below.

The six glanced at each other, expressions asking what in the world just happened, before they dismissively shrugged it off and snapped back into action. Kairi ran over to one table and began looking through a range of liquid filled vials. "What does it look like?"

"I don't know. Just keep looking." Kuzco answered, rummaging through a draw filled with the same pink filled jars. Pacha stumbled upon a large cabinet, yanking open the doors to reveal even more jars, except that these ones were labelled with animal pictures. He called the others over, "Over here! It has to be one of these!"

All eyes scanned over the shelves, too see in the end that the exact potion they needed was missing. Footsteps were heard approaching nearby and everyone turned around to see none other then Yzma emerging menacingly from the shadows.

"Looking for _this_?" Yzma asked dramatically, pulling out the little bottle containing the sparkling bright pink liquid. Everyone gasped.

"What? No!" Mia shook her head unbelievably, "How did you get back here before us?" She was pretty sure she saw them both drop to the bottom of a seemingly endless chasm during the big chase.

Yzma held up one finger to explain, before stopping mid-word. "Um...how _did_ we, Kronk?" The woman in purple turned to her loyal assistant, who looked just as confused as everyone else. Kronk knitted his eyebrows and shrugged, pulling down a chart from a nearby wall.

"Well you got me," he answered truthful, inspecting the map. "By all accounts it doesn't make sense."

After a few more moments of bewilderment Yzma simply shrugged it off and continued from where she left off. Kuzco laughed nervously as he eyes the very fragile looking glass bottle in the old woman's hand and began to ramble, "Ok I admit; maybe I wasn't as nice as I should have been."

Dan cleared his throat, "If this weren't such a delicate situation I would applaud you for that breakthrough."

After a quick glare in the younger boy's direction Kuzco continued. "But, Yzma, do you really wanna _kill me_?" Yzma almost laughed at the way the llama's voice cracked on the word "kill", and began to stalk forward.

"Just think of it as...you're being let go, your life is going in a different direction, that your body's part of a permanent outplacement..." Kuzco's eyes widened in fear as he sunk further into the pantry.

Kronk snapped his fingers, a humorous smile on his face, "Hey, that's kind of like what he said to you when you got fired."

Yzma, on the other hand, was not amused the slightest. "I know, it's called a cruel irony – like my dependence on you."

"Wait," Kairi cut in, "You fired her? _That's_ what all this is about?"

"On no, he didn't just fire me. He _humiliated_ me! I have had to do every single thing that little brat has told me ever since he was barely a foot high. And what are the thanks I get?" Kuzco cast his eyes down to the floor. "Now he'll be getting his just rewards!"

Kuzco shook his head, hysterically shouting, "I can't believe this is happening!"

Then, to everyone's horror, Yzma reached down for the hem of her dress, "The I guess you weren't expecting...THIS!" The woman yanked her dress up causing everyone to scream in horror and shield their eyes.

"Ah-ha!" Yzma pulled her dress up more to reveal a very shiny, but very sharp looking dagger. Everyone sighed in relief. Yzma then tossed the dagger to Kronk, who caught it nervously. "Finish them off. Oh, all except the two little girls; Maleficent has _big_ plans for those two." Just by the mention of the veil witch's name made Sora tremble in rage as he stared at Yzma with a look that could kill her. Dan gripped Mia's wrist and protectively pushed her behind him. Both boys had not summoned their Keyblades since they saw the hesitance in Kronk's eyes, but they still had their hands ready at a moments provocation.

Kronk stared at the knife in his hand while Yzma waited. Just then the most unexpected thing happened. Kronk jumped and looked to his left shoulder as if there was someone there and began to mutter to himself.

Everyone stared disbelievingly.

"...Well, Yzma just tossed me this knife and asked me to, you know, take them out. And then this guy popped up and then we waited for you, and quite honestly..."

"KRONK!" Yzma screamed, snapping Kronk out of his conversation. "Why did I think you could do this? This one simple thing. It's like I'm talking to a monkey!"

Kronk gasped in shock. Sora took this minor distraction to form a plan in his mind, reached over to Kairi and pulled her closer to him. Kairi, confused as to what Sora was doing, only watched him point to the little bottles on the shelve before realisation sunk in. The two began to grab the bottles, Sora stuffing them into his never ending pockets and Kairi was shocked to find that all the little pockets on her belt had the same magical charm on them as Sora's pants.

"A really, really big stupid monkey named Kronk!"

"Ouch." Mia commented.

"And you want to know something else?" Yzma asked and they all waited for the worst. "I've never liked your spinach puffs! Never!" Kronk gasped in shock, his lip beginning to quiver and the others couldn't help but find themselves feeling sorry for the mistreated man. Mia watched as Kronk's shoulder angel and devil began to comfort the man as the devil readied his trident like a gun and said, "That's it, she's going down." Mia wasn't quite sure how or why she could see them, but she guessed it was a part of being able to see into people's minds.

The angel stopped the opposite version of himself before he could do any thing. "Now, now, remember, guys: from above the the wicked shall receive their just reward."

Mia, Dan, Pacha and Kuzco followed Kronk's gaze to the chandelier above them, which, ironically, was positioned directly above Yzma. Kronk caught Mia's gaze and she nodded, "That'll work." Kronk shot over to the rope holding the light up and slashed the dagger right through it. All shielded themselves as the chandelier plummeted to the floor, landing right on top of the old woman in purple. Kuzco peaked one eye open to see a cloud of dust, which, once it cleared, revealed Yzma standing stiffly and furiously in the centre of the light, it missing her by inches.

Dan sighed. "Of course. She's to freakishly skinny to get crushed."

"Strange..." Kronk pondered, staring between the ceiling and Yzma, "That usually works..."

"And so does _this_!" Yzma pulled down hard on a chord which had appeared out of nowhere, removing the single floor panel Kronk was standing on. Kronk stood there, propelled in mid air for some moments before finally falling through, "Should have seen _that_ coming."

Yzma turned back to the group by the pantry, "And this, too." The woman snapped her fingers and out of individual clouds of smoke came at least a dozen Heartless. Sora sighed, summoning his Keyblade, "And _we_ should have seen _that_ coming..."

"Lucky thing Maleficent lent me these _charming creatures, _just in case I ran into you brats." She turned to the Heartless, obediently waiting for the signal to attack. "Sick 'em, boys."

Just like that the Heartless leaped forward, and so did the four teenage Keybladers. Whilst the others charged right into the battle and began fighting the vicious little things, Sora kept close to Pacha and Kuzco. Throwing an arm behind him, Sora said to them in the calmest voice he could master at the moment, "Just stay close behind me. Don't wander off!"

Not long after one of the jaguars pounced over to him, Pacha and Kuzco, and Sora swung his keyblade forward, only to have to the Heartless dodge the attack and swipe the boy with its claws. Sora winced in both pain and shock, "Ow! What the heck is wrong with me today?"

Just then another one of its friends joined it and both tried to attack all three of them this time. Shifting positions Sora tried again and actually managed to land a blow on the wild cat, but not quite as well as he would have hoped or done. Getting frustrated Sora send a bolt of lightning at the two and saw that one bolt was made of all light and the other, surprisingly, all darkness.

"Huh?" The Heartless looked dazed and took a longer amount of time to begin attacking again. Sora tried the same attack again, this time noticing that the bolts came out of individual parts of the Keyblade; light from the sun and darkness from the moon. The two Heartless shook and dissolved into a combined cloud of black smoke. (A/N:1)

Over with the others, Kairi jumped around slashing Heartless one at a tine, sometimes not quite lading the right blow and ended up having to attack again. She used only sword combat because Kairi found that when she would use any spells it would take a lot more out of her then the pain blade. She really needed to learn to control that.

Dodging one attack from one of the wild cats, Kairi spun behind her to see about three shadows about to pounce on her, claws ready. Suddenly three bolts of fire shot straight through them like bullets and just as they were dissolving, Kairi turned to Mia to thank her.

Just as Kairi finished off the jaguars trying to kill her, Mia turned toward her own set of problems. One tried to advance on her, but the girl ducked and slid out of the way, coming up from behind and slicing her blade straight through it. Flipping it in the air to get a better grip Mia spun and shot a beam of light into one that any other person wouldn't have known was there.

Dan jumped around to get reflect an attack from a nearby Heartless that had appeared out of thin air, only to have to duck to the floor and then jump right away after. "Whoa," Dan stared at the Heartless' sharp teeth and claws. "Feisty one, aren't cha?" Why the most aggressive of them all always – without fail – _always _went after him, he didn't know. But he was going to find out one of these days.

Plunging his keyblade at one of the Heartless which had just joined the (more) aggressive one whist swinging it around so that it landed a blow on a shadow's face, Dan caught Sora from the corner of his eye, sending bolts of lightning at Heartless instead of attacking them with his keyblade. "Strange..." he murmured before getting back down to business. Mia, Dan and Kairi all continued at slash at individual Heartless, sometimes even two at once, and with the help of Sora and his bolts of lightning there were soon no more Heartless left in the room.

As the four teenagers sent their keyblades away and tried to catch their breaths, Yzma stood dumb founded in the centre of the room. "Huh. Well, _that_ didn't go as well as planed..." Suddenly out of no where Pacha charged at Yzma and snatched the vial right out of her bony, grey fingers. Pacha, not expecting Yzma to body slam him into the ground, struggled the hold on to the bottle.

"Give me that vial!" Yzma demanded, managing to grab it off Pacha before Kuzco slammed right into her like a bull, the bottle landing just in front of Pacha's body. Unfortunately Yzma had crashed into the pantry holding what was left off the bottles. With an evil smile Yzma tipped the entire shelf over and got the rest of the vials mixed with the human potion.

Yzma laughed, "embarrassed". "Oops. Clumsy me. Which one, which one?" she taunted as Pacha and Kuzco frantically tried to find the correct potion. Suddenly the back doors opened to reveal a dozen of the palace guards with their spears.

Pacha began tossing trough the bottles.

"Get them!" Yzma ordered the guards, pointing at the four teenagers and two men. "They killed the Emperor!"

Kuzco held his hands up in surrender, "No, wait! I'm the emperor! It's me... Kuzco!" The guards did not respond. "They're not listening to me!"

Sora and Kairi bolted over to Pacha, "Just grab them all!" Sora turned to Kairi, "Now!"

The two threw every little bottle they had harvested at the Guards. When the potions landed on them a big pink mass of smoke appeared, clearing soon after to show that every single guard had been turned into an animal. Taking this as their moment to escape, the group disappeared into one of the back passage ways of the palace. As they ran they could hear the sound of the guards ow turned animals charging at them from down the other hall.

Pacha pulled one of the potions out of his poncho and gave it to Kuzco. Sora took this time to finally rid of his silly oversized poncho and hat. "We've got to change you back! Try this one!"

Kuzco scoffed down the potion without complaint. Kuzco, loosing his footing, sprang forward whilst engulfed in the pink smoke. Crawling forward now was Kuzco as a small land turtle. It seems that no one had noticed the bad change and continued running.

"Uh, Guys!" Kuzco called out. Sora spun around and picked the little turtle up off the ground and continued running. Grabbing a potion at random out of Pacha's poncho Sora silently prayed, "Please be something with wings!" before shoving the potion don Kuzco's throat. Smoke engulfed the all as the others grabbed onto Sora and Kuzco, a feeling of weightlessness creeping on to them all soon after.

"Yeah! We're flying!" once the smoke cleared they all saw what it was Kuzco had changed into: a tiny red bird. "Uh-oh..." all plummeted to the ground below and landed smack into hard floor.

"Ow..." Everyone groaned, bones aching, whilst behind them was the guards charging with battle cries. Everyone got up off the floor and commenced running again. Sora shook the dizziness out of him and grabbed Kuzco, who suddenly reminded him a lot of Eago.

This time it was Mia's turn to grab a vial and give it to Kuzco. "Try this one!"

Kuzco was tuned into a monkey.

Dan grabbed one and shoved it down his throat, "How 'bout this?"

"Kuzco turned into an elephant. "Oh come on, this is worse then the turtle!" Dan complained.

"Fifth time's the charm!" Kairi grabbed a bottle and gave it to Kuzco.

The pink smoke smothered them all and Kuzco stood on the floor on all fours. "Yay, I'm a llama again!" Kuzco halted his celebration. "Wait..."

The sound of the guards yet again sent the six bolting off in the other direction. "We're never going to get anywhere with you people picking the vials! _I'm_ picking the next one!" Kuzco snatched one of the little bottles off of Pacha, pulled the cork out and drank its contents. Sparks erupted as they were all once again engulfed in the pick smoke, which slowly dimmed to reveal Kuzco to the five: a big red whale.

The whale emperor glared at Pacha, "Don't you say a word."

All of a sudden a distinct cracking sound was heard moments before the group fell through the stone floor to the water below. Everyone coughed the water out of their lungs when they surfaced, as Pacha climbed on Kuzco's back and threw another potion into his mouth. Kuzco was then revealed to be a llama again.

"How many llama potions does that woman have?" Sora asked in disbelief.

Kairi pointed to a door at the end of the pool room just as the marching and the battle cries of the guard animals could be heard again. The six quickly swam to the edge of the pool as fast as possible and ran out the door to find themselves on a balcony about fifty feet up in the air. Back inside the guards accompanied by Yzma stared at the room wondering where in the world the perpetrators could have gone.

Yzma pointed to the door impatiently, "Through there. After them!"

With battle cries and spears held up in the air the guards charged through the door, only to slip on the wet patches the six left from the pool and slide right off the balcony, their girlish screams heard all the way down.

All blinked, dumbfounded. "Well that was easy..." Pacha murmured before reaching for the remaining vials in his poncho, handing them to Kuzco. "Only two left – it's now or never." just as Kuzco was about to drink one of the potions, Yzma came around the corner swinging on a piece of curtain like Tarzan, and knocking everyone off their feet. Both Kuzco and Yzma spotted the vials at the same time and charged for them. Kuzco got their first and Yzma tried to push him out of the way, leaving Kuzco no choice but to fight back. This resolved in both landing on the two vials and causing a large explosion.

Everyone unshielded their eyes to the sound of deep, evil laughter, shadows cast in the mass of pink smoke in a face of a monster. Once the smoke cleared up the laughter stopped to reveal Yzma...as a small, light purple, kitten.

"Awww," Mia and Kairi couldn't help but coo.

Kuzco smiled smugly and he bent down and pick the vial up from in front of Yzma. "I'll take that," The llama lifted the bottle to his mouth and went to take the cork out.

"Well, this is the one." Pacha remarked.

"This'll change you back into a human." Added Sora after, with Dan's mutter, "At long last." Just as Kuzco was about to open the bottle the little kitten that was Yzma pounced on his face and began scratching the daylights out of him, causing him to scream and cry out, "OOW! Hey, _cut it out_!".

Pacha ran forward and ripped Yzma off of him, which only made her hiss and sink her new sharp teeth into his forearm. This caused Kuzco to drop the vial, and Pacha to go flying to the edge of the fence-less balcony.

"Pacha!" Sora only made it half way before a group of Heartless appeared in front of him, blocking his way. He immediately summoned his Keyblade, as did the other three, and began taking out the little distractions. As soon as they were all gone the four teens turned to the sound of Kuzco screaming in fear, "No, no! Don't drop it!"

"I'm not going to drop it, you fool! I'm going to _drink_ it." The four were surprised to hear Yzma's voice as hight as a chipmunk's. "And once I turn back into my _beautiful_ self I'm going to KILL YOU!" Yzma then went into a roll of mechanical laughter. Soon after the laughter turned into coughing. "Ugh, hair ball." Yzma heaved. Finding she was not strong enough to open the bottle Yzma got angry and threw it on the stone beneath her, realising that it was the wrong thing to do when it ricocheted off the wall and fell to the earth below. Yzma stupidly jumped to try and catch it only to fall right off the balcony.

"Uh-oh." was the last thing Yzma said before plummeting down.

"The potion!" Kuzco cried looking over the edge, but was only left chest fallen when the little vial was no where in sight. Everyone cast their eyes down. "Great," groaned Kuzco sadly, "Now what am I gonna do?"

It seemed that everyone had forgotten about Pacha dangling over the edge. All gasped and shot over to the large man to help him back onto the balcony. Moments after Pacha was back up Yzma's evil laughter was heard and the six turned around to see the kitten defy gravity and fly back up along the wall, only to have her moment come to an end when she smashed into a piece of brick sticking out. The bottle flew right back down again and landed safely in Sora's hand.

The brunette blinked at the little vial in his hands, "Well that was lucky." For some reason once Sora handed the vial back to Kuzco everyone erupted with laughter and threw their arms around each other. Mia and Kairi jumped around in a circle, and Pacha and Kuzco, and Sora and Dan laughed with relief... until a few seconds later when they realised what they were doing and separated. Sora and Dan separated uncomfortably and Kuzco and Pacha coughed to fill the awkward silence.

"Well," Pacha said as Kuzco smiled down at the bottle. "This is finally it."

Kuzco smiled at each one of them. "See you on the other side."

He drank the potion.

_

* * *

_

Five hours later...

"Well," Dan began as he laid back on the heavily pillow infested lounge in the Palace's main room, making himself at home. "Now what do we do?"

Sora slumped down in one of the arm chairs as Kairi and Mia shared one of the love-seats. "I honestly don't know."

"Chances of another one of those doors showing up?" Kairi asked.

Mia sighed, "Slim to none."

"Then," Sora began as he fiddled with the armchair's stringy bits, "I guess for now we're stuck here." Vivid blue eyes turned to Pacha who sat next to a miniature model of his village over by the hills sadly turning a tiny replica of his house around and around in the palm of his hand, Sora watched as a young adult with a slim body type, shoulder length jet black hair and cyan earnings that would even be big on a cow, walked up to the down cast peasant, hands on hips.

As Sora saw Pacha lift his head up to Kuzco, just noticing him, and listened to whatever Kuzco was saying Sora began wishing that he never got rid of his hat and poncho. He was receiving all kinds of looks from any servant of the palace that came to offer them refreshments, or a guard that happened to walk past, no doubt because of the posters of him plastered all over who knows where.

A small snort came from next to him and Sora turned toward Mia, who was grinning knowingly. "Yeah," she scoffed, "that's the only reason." His confusion was lifted when Sora turned his head over one a young girl dusting one of the million busts of Kuzco. The girl smiled and winked at Sora suggestively. Sora's eyes widened and he blushed tomato red, turning his eyes down, embarrassed. A tiny stab of jealousy spiked Kairi when she noticed this, too.

Sora wondered why this girl was looking at _him_ and not Dan, until he realised that she _was_ and Dan was just trying to ignore her. After trying to strike up a conversation with Roxas, and realising that he wasn't there and must be resting on his own mural, Sora turned back to Kuzco and Pacha's conversation, the others following soon after.

Sora, Mia, Kairi and Dan were all happy to see Kuzco lift his model of his summer home off of the position of Pacha and his family's house. "...So, I'll be building my summer home on a more...magical hill." Not quite sure how the conversation reached that conclusion but not really caring anyway, the group got up to walk over and congratulate both for their individual achievements.

As soon as Kuzco saw Sora he turned to him with a smug smile, "Not so much of a Heartless _now_, huh, Sorie?"

Sora chuckled, "Firstly: it's _Sora. _And secondly: I called you _heartless_, not _a Heartless_."

"So," Mia began, "what made you decide not build your home on top of Pacha's?"

"Ehh," Kuzco shrugged, "Just wasn't _Emperor_ enough for me, know what I mean?"

"Sure, Kuzco." They all laughed.

"So how long are you kids staying?" Pacha asked once the laughter died down.

Dan shrugged, "Well, right now we're stuck here with no way out of this world, so we might be here a while. And what do you mean "kids"?"

Sora joined in, hating being referred to as a child. "Yeah, we're not kids!"

"You sure about that?" Pacha teased.

"I'm sixteen!" Sora cried. Pacha and Kuzco laughed, "Oh, wow."

"And I'm almost as old as him," Dan pointed to Kuzco, only making the two laugh even harder. This time Mia and Kairi joined in, and Dan dropped his hand. "Wow, now I know how my brother feels when I call him 'little boy'..."

Suddenly, in the midst of all the happiness, Sora received a bone-chilling sensation run down his spine. Everything went cold all at once and goose bumps formed on his arms, but it seemed that the others were not affected by the change. Sora's hand moved to the palm of the other, where the strange symbol was printed subconsciously.

"Guys," Sora's frosty voice broke through the laughter and chat. Even though it took the two adults longer to register, it was clear straight away to Mia, Kairi and Dan that something was wrong. They turned to see Sora with a far away look on his face massaging the palm of his hand with his thumb, and watched as something in the distance caught Sora's eye.

"Kairi, your question about the chances of another door showing up..." Instead of finishing his sentence Sora pointed to something behind them, and all turned around to see an almost identical version of the door Sora, Kairi, Dan and Mia used to get to the world in the first place. What was different was that this one was much bigger, was made of granite instead gold and in silver was the exact symbol tattooed onto each of their palms.

"What's that?" Kuzco and Pacha bluntly asked. "That," Dan murmured, "is our return trip ticket."

Without warning all four teens ran up to the door in wonder, Kuzco and Pacha followed soon after. "Think it will take us back to Broken Kingdom?"

"I'd say it's worth a try." Kairi answered.

Mia, on the other hand, simply placed her hands on her hips and stared almost accusingly at Sora. "Oh, so _now_ you believe it's Broken Kingdom?" Sora laughed apologetically.

Dan traced his hand over the pattern on the door. "It's a good shot."

"Wait," They broke from their trance and turned to Kuzco. "So you're leaving? Just like that?"

Mia smiled and stepped closer to the Emperor and the peasant. "Aw, you won't miss us. You've got a whole kingdom to run."

Kuzco stiffened, trying to cover his little slip of emotion. "Um, yeah, cha, I know that!" He ran a hand through his hair smoothly. None of them bought it. "I...um... was-was worried 'bout Pacha! He'll be a blubbering mess."

Pacha rolled his eyes. "I appreciate your concern, Kuzco." He said dryly.

"But what about those weird shadowy thingies and that big scary monster in the jungle? Who's gonna protect my people?" Kuzco worried.

Sora stepped forward, "Were there many weird shadowy thingies and big scary monsters in the jungle before you fired Yzma?" Kuzco and Pacha took some time to think before confirming that their weren't. "Well then you should be fine."

Kairi smiled warmly. "It was really nice to meet both of you."

Pacha returned the smile, "You too. All of you." he said, referring to Kuzco as well.

Before Kairi and Mia could turn around Kuzco stopped them. "Hey, I, uh, heard that you two were princesses. I'll be in need of an Empress soon so if either one of you wants to..." Kuzco trailed off, curtsey of the death glares he was receiving from both Sora and Dan. "Uh..." He gulped, "You know what, never mind. Ha-ha. I, uh, actually prefer brunettes...and cheerleaders...anyway." (A/N:2)

Pacha chuckled behind him and Kuzco shot a glare in his direction. "Well," Dan began. "I can't exactly say it's been fun. But it has been interesting."

"Yeah," Pacha agreed. "Maybe you could stop by again some time in the future?"

"Yeah, of course. We'll look forward to it." Both Sora and Kairi nodded, Mia and Dan stayed silent. After bidding their final goodbyes and warning Pacha and Kuzco that they might want to look away for this part, Sora and Dan pulled open the heavy doors.

After letting the beautiful light engulf their minds, the four walked through.

* * *

Groans erupted within the threes of the haunting world as three teenagers clutched their heads, a sickness creeping on to them all. The dizziness was the same as it was when they first walked through the strange doors, except this time it seemed not as bad – even the pounding on Dan's scull wasn't hurting as much. Once the after effects passed all four stared at the woods around them, seeing that they were in the exact same spot, only difference was that the "Sun" had fallen once again.

"Here we are," Mia spoke though the thick silence, "right back where we started from."

"We should probably make camp for the night. I think I have a few _tents_ in here somewhere." Sora began to rummage through his pockets until he found a _tent_.

"Good idea." Kairi agreed. "We certainly need the rest."

Mia nodded, lost in her own thoughts, and they began to walk forward only to have to stop moments later on the account of Dan's call. The three turned back. "What is it?" Kairi asked.

Dan had turned back to the door and the sign above stating the world's name. "What was the name of the world we were just at?"

The three shared a glance before Sora answered, "Uh, Aztec Empire?"

"That's what I thought it was, too." Dan murmured. "What?" Mia exclaimed. "What do you mean '_That's what I thought it was, too_'?" she ran forward and joined Dan by his side. Dan simply looked at her once and pointed to the sign, and the three gasped at what they saw.

"_Inca_ Empire?" Sora gasped, staring at the changed words of the sign. He then turned to the door, "And wasn't that gold before, not bronze?" Everyone was too stunned to think to answer his question. At the back of his mind Sora heard a voice which did not belong to him or Roxas whispering, "_When the words change...run._"

* * *

**Hi! Yay! My first world completed! As much as I love this movie I'm just really glad it's over. Again I feel the need to apologise for the late update. So sorry!**

A/N:1: Every time I write that line I can't help thinking of the smoke monster from _Lost. _

A/N:1: A little reference to Malina there, couldn't help it ^-^.

**I have nothing else to say besides please review. **

**Oooo**

**o o **

**o**


	25. Olympus Coliseum

**Hey! Here is chapter number 25! I haven't thanked my readers and reviewers in a while so I'm doing it now. It all means a lot to me so thank you very much! ^-^**

**Disclaimer stands. **

**Enjoy! **

**Chapter 25: Olympus Coliseum**

* * *

Some time ago back on the islands Riku decided to one day ask Sora about Donald and Goofy, which he then replied to by answering that they are two of the most best friends any one could ever have. Sora then went into this whole story about all the great times they had journeying through the worlds to find him and Kairi, and how Goofy gives the best advise ever, though sometimes a bit clumsy, and how Donald can have quite a temper but underneath all those ruffled feathers was a heart of gold.

At this moment Riku made mental note that he would one day meet these two and make amends for all the trouble and torment he put them through the past couple of years. But right now, sitting in the exact situation he was, Riku wished he was anywhere but alone in the creepy dead woods with the oversized dog and duck.

"...We are going this way!..."

"...No, we are going _this way_..."

"...I don't like that world..."

"...I wanna see..."

Riku sat cross-legged on the teal but slightly grey grass picking mindlessly at the little blades with his head on his fist, watching the two adults bicker. Here was the situation: Goofy and Donald were standing at a fork in the road, both of which will lead to two completely different worlds, and were arguing over which to visit first – which has been going on for nearly half an hour now, by Riku's count.

Goofy was positioned on the path which lead to the east, whilst Donald kept his ground on the path leading to the west. On Goofy's side was Wonderland, the world full of tea cups and mad hatters, whilst on Donald's side was the great Olympus Coliseum, where heroes were so heroic their image was projected in the stars.

The boy with the silver hair, who wasn't quite able to handle much more of this, tossed the blades of grass he had collected to the side in a frustrating burst, growling "Ugh, would you just decide already!"

Donald and Goofy, a tad taken aback by the startling outburst, stopped their bickering immediately and turned toward Riku with a jump. "One or the other, it's not that hard," Riku continued. "Flip a coin or something, rock-paper-scissors, _e__eny_, _meeny_, _miny_, _moe_ – I don't care. Just pick!"

The knight and court mage, not even stopping to think to ask the teenager which world he would prefer going to first, both turned around and began chanting in unison, "_E__eny_, _meeny_, _miny_, _moe. Catch a cricket by the toe..." _

Riku rolled his cyan eyes at the two's sheer childishness and couldn't help thinking_ "____Of course Sora would instantly click with these two... This next who-knows-how-long is going to be interesting.__"_

Riku was brought out of his thoughts on the account of,_ "...eeny, meeny, miny,_ moe! Ha! I win!" a throaty voice chanted in victory and Riku looked up just in time to see Donald jumping in the air triumphantly and Goofy's chest fallen expression.

"Great!" Riku cried jumping up off the ground in forced enthusiasm and walking over to the two. "Can we go now?"

"Sure," Goofy replied, "Anything to get out of this creepy forest." but Riku had already walked out of hearing range. The first thing Riku was greeted by was two signs. The first directed him, Donald and Goofy where to continue on walking, but the second forced them to make a sharp turn to the right. The last thing was a great big golden pallet door with an image of what Donald and Goofy recognised as Olympus Coliseum along with other ancient Greek designs rimming the border.

Riku stared at the strange door with great interest. "Huh. This is new." He walked right up to it a brushed his finger over the drawings and foreign lettering inscribed in the gold, noting that despite looks the metal was not exactly freezing cold. Above the door was yet again another arrow on a post high above their heads, pointing to the door announcing ' Olympus Coliseum' along with more cryptic lettering.

"What'da ya think is behind there, Ah-yuk?" Goofy asked in his usual slang. By this time Riku and Donald had walked around to the back to check out whatever was behind.

Riku shrugged, "I was going to guess now much, but then again I have seen weirder and more magical doors."

"I say we open this baby up!" Donald offered, eyes gleaming. "Maybe there's treasure behind!"

Riku lifted his chin, "Yeah, Sora warned me about that too."

"About what?"

"Nothing – are we going in or not?" Riku moved back over to the front to stand beside Goofy an placed his hand on the handle. He waited for the other two's nods before pulling on the handles and sliding the French doors open with ease. The next thing the three knew they were being assaulted by a warm, beautiful golden light.

Donald and Goofy stared at the light, mesmerised by its luminance and warmth, watching how it made the tiny unnoticeable speaks of dust in the air sparkle. Riku, on the other hand, felt a completely different sensation. As soon as the light made contact with his skin Riku felt as if he was hit by a tone of bricks and staggered back, gasping. The other two were too mesmerised by the light to even notice the boy, but Riku was not mesmerised one bit – if anything, in pain – but there was something keeping him where he was, not letting him turn away and almost pulling him closer.

With dreamy smiles Donald and Goofy began walking closer to the portal and Riku was shocked to find his legs moving without his approval. He went to cry out, to tell them to turn around and not move any closer, but could not find his voice. Soon one thing let to another and the trio were completely submerged in the light and disappeared to the other end. Behind them the doors closed on Broken Kingdom once again.

* * *

An eruption of silver and blue sparks assaulted a lush green forest full of heavily leaved trees moments before a swirling vortex like article appeared and transformed into a large golden door. Said door opened wide introducing a bright light even more golden then the door before three figures emerged and stepped through. The door vanished just as quickly as it came, and just as it left the three groaned in pain and clutched their craniums, whining.

Once the nausea and the complaints about the nausea diminished Donald, Goofy and Riku only had so much time to recover before the were being surrounded by an army of at least a dozen Heartless. All immediately drew their weapons and snapped into battle mode, either charging at the Heartless or waiting for them to approach.

Goofy madly charged at a group with his shield, slamming right into them before they saw what was coming. Their hearts floated into the sky seconds later. Riku tried not to get too distracted by the canines' indifferent battle strategy as he fought to beat his own set of little black critters. At the corner of his eye Riku caught a glimpse of Donald crazily firing bucket loads of magic at little shadows as he slashed his Keyblade through one.

Riku suddenly remembered something else Sora told him about Donald; that he tends to get caught up in the moment and use up all the big spells before any of the big Heartless get a chance to find them, and also that he can be very stubborn and if you don't listen to him bad things may happen. Riku sighed as he plunged his blade into another, hoping that he would stop soon. After a few more moments of Donald sending a wave of magic on the littler Heartless and Goofy throwing his shield around like a Frisbee (almost slicing Riku's head off in the process) the trio finally ran out of Heartless.

"Well how's that for a welcoming committee," Riku said as he deposited his purple-black weapon and flicked his bangs out of his eyes, seriously regretting not ever cutting his hair while back home on the islands.

Soon Donald and Goofy joined him and the three began walking down the path of trees. Although they didn't get very far before a female scream erupted through the forest causing them to stop in their tracks. After a quick glance they were off through the trees to where the scream sounded like it came from. As they came closer they could pick up a faint shouting before bursting through some bushes into a clearing.

There was a large oasis with a tall waterfall taking up most of the cliff side on the far end, with many trees and willows falling over the water, wild flowers on bushes in bloom. The scene would have been beautiful if it wasn't for the twenty foot tall centaur chasing a girl who was frantically trying to escape in the shallow water. The girl ran away as fast as the water would let her, finding out too late that it wasn't fast enough when the centaur grabbed her around the waist in one large fist and lifting her eye level with him, laughing when the girl cried out.

The three ducked behind a nearby bush as Donald began to asses the situation. "Ok, world guardian. We've been through this before. We need to approach this very carefully."

Donald stopped when the centaur waved the girl in their direction. What surprised them all was that the girl growled in anger and yelled, "Listen, bub, if you don't put me down I'll –" Instead of finishing her sentence the girl swung her leg as high and with as mush force as she could at the creature, actually almost landing a blow to his face. The centaur jerked out of the way, startled, but just laughed in the end.

"Ooh, I like 'em fiery!" He spoke in a raspy voice, grinning disgustingly at her as she cringed away.

Riku narrowed his eyes at the big brute, barely listening to Donald when he continued. "Ok, we need a plan. We can't just barrel in there without thinking. Now, Riku, Youuuuu..." Donald dragged when he turned to see Riku gone from where he stood beside him, and cried out when he saw the teenager marching up to the two in the oasis.

Donald fumed and tightly crossed his feathery arms over his chest, grumbling to Goofy, "Just like Sora!"

"Come 'ere, sweetheart," The River Guardian laughed evilly as the girl squirmed in his fist, struggling to free herself. The centaur brought his face up close to hers, who in turn ringed away and cried again, pushing on his face to keep him away.

When Riku had reached them he straight away called his Keyblade and struck to cliff face behind, causing some rocks and pebbles to land on the centaurs head. Riku whistled, "Hey, Four-legs! Over here!"

Both froze in their positions and slowly turned their heads to Riku, who noticed how the girls eyes widened when she saw the weapon in the teenagers hand. The first thing Riku noticed when he saw her was clear lavender eyes on a porcelain heart shaped face, with a frame of long, elegant jet black hair with slight waves.

The River Guardian growled from being interrupted and marched up to Riku, who kept his ground and was not intimidated one bit. "Step aside, two-legs."

Riku let his eyes flicker to the struggling girl trying to free herself for only a moment before moving them back. "Listen you...um..." Riku struggled before simply settling with, "guy," the centaur made a sound and looked very insulted that Riku had to think about what his gender would be, "but if you don't let her go I'll – "

"Keep it moving, junior." The girl cut him off with a harsh yet musical voice.

Riku stared at her with a puzzled expression, trying not to look at the stupid brute's smug face. "Huh?" Was all he came up with.

The girl rolled her purplish-pink eyes to the sky, "Bye-bye, adios, your services are not needed here, Hun."

The puzzled expression did not lighten. "But, isn't...he trying to kill you?"

She shrugged, "Possibly. It's something new every day. Listen, I know I'm not exactly the defenceless damsel in distress you were expecting but I can handle myself. Have a nice day," She smiled "sweetly" and batted her eyelashes at him, giving a small wave. Riku was slightly taken aback by her easy nature and wasn't exactly expecting the River Guardian to swat him like a fly half way across the river. Back in the bushes Donald and Goofy winced when Riku slammed into the cave wall and fell back down in the water, causing a large splash.

When Riku lifted his head out of the water he clutched his head in dizziness, seeing little dancing stars in his vision. It took him a while to realise that he had dropped his Keyblade and was about to go searching for it when he realised that he could just call it back.

Donald and Goofy were just as shocked as he was. Goofy put a hand on Donald's shoulder, "Uh, I think we should help him,"

Donald shook Goofy's hand off, "Nah, he's got it all under control. Yaow! That's gonna hurt tomorrow." Donald winced. Goofy opened his mouth to speak but the duck cut him off, "This is what he gets for not listening to me."

Riku fired a beam of dark flame at the centaur, who instantly jumped out of the way to try and dodge the attack. This worked for the centaur but consequently there was nothing to stop the set course of the flame, which missed the girl but mere inches, managing to burn her jacket a tiny bit. The girl shirked and immediately patted at her hip to put the small flame out.

"Hey, watch it!" She yelled.

"Sorry!" The centaur took this minor distraction to hit Riku in the stomach again, punching him into yet another piece of stone. A searing pain pulsed through the teenagers entire body until a warm green light engulfed him and he was finally able to stand, though still a bit weak. Riku turned his head toward Donald who had just sent a healing spell at him, and was now jumping up and down, bellowing something that to Riku sounded like, "Come on, kid! Loose your head!".

"Loose my head? ...Oh! Use my head," Riku turned to take another look at the River Guardian before lifting his keyblade above his head and casting some sort of Reflect spell on himself. Kicking his feet off the ground Riku charged at the brute full speed, slamming into him head on and sending the centaur flying to the other side of the river, screaming as he flew.

Riku grinned as the spell wore off, watching the slight vapour trail of the centaur's flight path. "All that and without a keyblade. New record."

Back in the bushes Donald and Goofy were cheering and whistling.

"Yeah!" Donald quacked. "That was great! Not exactly what I meant but still,"

Riku turned away from them at the sound of a small cough and "ow". In the centaur's departure he had actually let go of the girl, who was now sitting in the water a meter away from Riku, her hair covering her entire face. Riku offered her a hand, but when she only fell back into the water he simply reached down and took her in his arms to carry her over to dry land.

"Sorry about that, are you ok?" Riku asked, trying for a soft tone.

The girl lifted her hands over to where her face should have been and parted her curtain of hair just enough for him to see half of her face. "Yeah." Just then Donald and Goofy had joined Riku and the newcomer, only to be greeted by Riku's less then happy glare. Donald smiled innocently, "What?"

Riku shook his head and got back to the girl, who had gotten up and began walking over to the water again. Not taking his eyes off her Riku scolded, "You two could have helped."

Goofy shifted his weight, feeling bad. "Well gee, I tried to but Donald said – "

The wizard cut him off, "What were you thinking? Just charging in there and not stopping to think up a plan!" He fumed.

Riku scoffed, "At least I beat him, didn't I?"

Donald paused, one feathery finger in the air with a caught comeback on his bill. "You got lucky." He settled with. "But next time don't let your guard down because of a pair of big _goo goo eyes!" _

Riku was no longer listening to a word Donald said, which infuriated the duck even more, and was now walking over the the girl kneeling by the creek. "Donald's got a point here, Riku. It's tricky in here, you never know what you might..." Goofy trailed off when Riku walked right past them, not even stopping to contemplate what eh was saying. Both animals crossed their arms tightly across their chests, angry that he wasn't listening to either of them.

"Can I ask what you were doing this far into the forest?" Riku asked when he approached her.

She didn't turn around. "Looking for something."

"Really?" He asked, curious as to what there was to find out here. "Like what?"

The girl chuckled, a bell-like musical tone, actually turning around while still crouched on the ground to peek up at him. "Step back, Mister Nosey."

Riku shifted his weight, "Right, sorry. But can I at least ask your name?" The next thing Riku knew he was being whipped in the face by dripping wet black hair. The girl had obviously flicked her hair in his face as she got up from the ground, clutching some sort of black cloth.

"Amalia. Friends call me Mali – well, at least they would if I had any." She said in a drier tone, twirling the cloth around to release some of the dampness. Riku had just managed to wipe the water off his face before she slapped the cloth onto his stomach, forcing him to take it as she bent down to fix her shoe. Riku had just realised that the black cloth was in fact a jacket.

"And your name, Silver?" She asked when she got back up. Riku felt like an idiot for not answering right away, but the way the Sun illuminated her face and the way her eyes shone when she smiled at him made it really hard for Riku to think.

He began to babble, something he never did. "Right. I'm, uh...um...er..." And he has forgotten his name. Behind Riku Donald and Goofy were staring at the boy as if he has gone mad, before Donald snapped from annoyance and quacked, "Riku." arms outstretched.

Riku blinked out of his trance and regained his composure, "Riku, yes."

Amalia chuckled again, taking off her shoe and pouring out half the river. "Riku, huh? I think I prefer Silver." She put her shoe and jacket back on and Riku took this time to analyse her. She had this zip up jacket/dress thing that hung down to her upper thighs and long sleeves that she pushed up to her elbows. Underneath she had, he noticed when she removed her jacket, a dark purple halter top and Jean short shorts, with long boots which were crumpled a bit at the top. To top it all off she had one singular fingerless glove on her right hand, laced with a sort of floral pattern on the back of her hand.

Donald frowned at the siverette. This was exactly what he was talking about! Donald reached into his pocket and pulled out his staff, with a simple _Earth_ spell the tree right beside Riku shifted, moving one of its heavily leaf infested branches in front of his view. Riku flinched back when one of the sharp branches scratched him just under the eye and whacked the branch out of the way, causing the spell to ware off and go flying back to Donald.

"So," He continued. "How did you get mixed up with the..." he waved a hand.

"The centaur?" She replied, "Well you know how all men are; they think no means yes and "touch me again I'll slice off a vital organ" means "Take me, I'm yours!"." In emphasis she cupped her hands together and leaned into Riku, batting her eyelashes. After a few moments of awkward silence Amalia dropped the smile and moved back. "Never mind. I'm sure..." She looked at Donald and Goofy, "Shorty and Lassie over there can explain it to you." She patted Riku's chest.

"SHORTY?" Donald exploded, followed by Goofy, "LASSIE?"

Amalia simply ignored them. "Well," She clapped her hands once. "That's all for me. That's for the help, Silver, but I better get going. I'm needed back in town," She jabbed a thumb behind her.

"Hey!" Riku called out as she began to retreat. Amalia tuned back around. "We can escort you back into...town, if you want. You know, just in case any more four-legged jerks come along?"

Donald and Goofy's mouths fell open, and Riku wasn't really sure which one, but one of them hissed, "You don't even know where we are in this current place!"

Amalia smiled that bright smile of hers, "That's very kind of you but I can take care of myself. And besides," She stole a glance at the hard expressions of the two animals, "I don't really think your amigos like me very much."

"Donald and Goofy?" Riku laughed once. "No, no. Don't worry about them. Ow!" Riku winced, clutching his head and staring at the ground where a little pebble lay that "mysteriously" fell from the sky.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. And I really wouldn't want to slow you three down." Before Riku could utter another word she had half disappeared into the trees. "It's was nice meeting you!"

Riku opened his mouth to respond but Amalia was already gone. Some moments later Goofy strolled up to Riku and snapped his fingers in front of his view, snapping the teen out of his trance. "Huh?" Riku turned to a grinning Goofy and flushed, but Donald on the other hand, was anything but grinning.

Donald turned to imitate Riku's previous stance, over exaggerating it by a long run. Riku glared at the duck when he saw that he was insulting him. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He screamed at lungs capacity. "WE HAVE A JOB TO DO! Or have you forgotten?"

At that sentence Goofy's eyes widened and something snapped inside of him. "JOB!"

Donald turned to his companion, startled by the outburst. "What?"

Goofy's one and only response was to grab Donald around the wrist and drag him off to where he thought was out of hearing distance. "Gawrsh, Donald, I think we just forgot our job."

Riku frowned, wondering what Goofy could be talking about. Obviously Donald felt the same way, "What are you blabbering about, Goofy?"

The knight sighed, "You see? Remember that assignment the King gave us just before we left Disney Castle?"

"Assignment?" Riku murmured.

Donald continued to stare blankly at his friend before the realisation finally set in, and his eyes widened until they looked about to fall out of his skull. Donald fought off the reflex of jumping high in the air ans sprawling, "WHAAK!"

Instead, he simply hissed in a panicked tone, "The last thing King Mickey told us before we left was not to forget our job! Oh, this is bad. This is really, really, really, really _bad_!" By the end of his sentence Donald's words were so close together that all Goofy – and Riku – was able to get out of it was a stream of incoherent quacks.

By this Riku had had just about enough and spoke out, "You guys realise I can hear every single word you're saying, right?"

Donald and Goofy froze in their stances and slowly turned their bodies toward Riku, embarrassment flashing brightly on their faces as they chuckled nervously. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

The two numbly walked back over to Riku. "Just before we left Disney Castle," Goofy began, "the King gave us instructions to find someone who was vital to our mission. He gave us a picture of her and everything, to make sure that we didn't forget."

Riku nodded and asked, "Can I see it." He had a strange feeling where this was leading. Donald reached into his pocket and pulled out a small rectangular photograph and handed it to Riku, who once received it, stared at the picture unbelievably before turning it to Donald and Goofy. "I'm guessing Mickey didn't give you a name."

"Oh no, no, "Donald replied. "He did. Something along the lines of...Emily, I think."

"No," Goofy interjected. "I don't think that's right. Something like Betty or Bianca...or Amy."

The wizard snapped his fingers. "Yeah! Close but not Amy – still something beginning with an 'A', I'm sure."

"Not Amy... Annie? Angelica? Anna-belle? No, those don't sound right either..."

Riku sighed at the two's unbelievable stupidity. Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose, Riku said, "Amalia?"

Donald and Goofy's faces brightened. "YEAH! ...Oh." They realised, once they saw the look present on Riku's face. The teenager pointed to the spot in the trees where Amalia disappeared.

"You didn't notice?" He asked and took another look at the photograph. She looked at least two years younger at the most, and besides that shorter and straight hair everything was the same. The dog and the duck cast their eyes to the forest floor, embarrassed by their own obliviousness. Riku sighed with a groan, "Now what? We can't just stand here like idiots. If Amalia is apparently "important to our mission" then we obviously need to find her – and fast."

A thought reached Donald, "The closest city from here is Thebes. We can try there first."

"Great, but I don't know to way." Riku admitted.

Donald pushed out his chest proudly and ruffled his feathers, "Well lucky for you two I've been through this world more times then I can count!"

"Really?" Riku asked surprised.

"Really?" Goofy mimicked.

Donald frowned. "Yes. But before we get going I just remembered our other job. We are in a forest so why don't we see if we can find it?"

Riku nodded, it all coming back to him. "Yeah, that's right. The Menka flowers." Riku reached into his pocket to retrieve the small ruby device that will locate the flowers, only to find nothing but cotton.

The two frowned, confused as to what was taking so long. "Um, Riku?" Goofy began. "We need the tracking device to find the flowers."

"We may need it but it's not in here."

Donald popped. Again. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S NOT IN THERE?"

"I DON"T KNOW!" Riku yelled back. "Maybe it fell out during the crash or something. Or something..." Riku's eyes trailed over to the far side of the forest, realisation like a slap in the face. "Oh you have got to be kidding me."

Obviously Donald and Goofy caught up pretty fast this time because the same expression crossed both of their faces.

"She stole it?" Goofy gasped, Donald glancing at him as if to say "No duh".

"You sure she doesn't have a twin?" Riku asked hopefully. The shook their heads. "Thought not. Great, so the one person "vital to our mission" happens to be a con artist and a pick-pocket."

Goofy sighed, just knowing that this was going to be a bumpy ride. "Which way to Thebes?"

Donald pointed in the trees. "Follow me." The court wizard began walking, Goofy and Riku following after him.

"She better be damn important." Riku groaned.

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	26. Thebes' Thieves

**Hello! Wow, it's been quite a long time since my last update... He he *sheepish smile* Sorry about that... Well, I may as well get down to business, so here is chapter 26!**

**I do not own Kingdom Hearts and any of its characters, except for this particular story line and the OCs. **

**Enjoy!**

_Chapter 26: Thebes' Thieves _

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"Welcome to Thebes!" A scratchy voice exclaimed with arms outstretched in emphasis of the glorious ancient city surrounding. "The big olive itself." Donald added, walking further on to the streets with a bright smile as all the memories came flooding back to him just at the sight of the stone landscape, tall buildings suspended by pillars individually carved with the finest detail and the most careful of hands. The street wells, stone sculptures of gods and goddesses in the form of fountains, stores selling the finest pottery by the most famous of the world's artists...

And last, but not least, the people. Donald had to admit the city wouldn't be quite what it is without the inhabitants roaming the large streets day in and day out, buzzing with conversations and stories to tell. However odd and slightly eccentric certain members of the population may seem at times, Donald couldn't deny this world one of his top five – maybe even his most favourite of worlds out of the vast sea of stars just waiting to be found and explored.

"Why is that?" Riku asked, listening to Donald speak to the two trailers behind, who had just finished staring in awe at the metropolis.

It was Goofy who answered, "Because this was the very first world Donald ever visited once he became a fully fledged wizard."

Riku raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Really?" Donald managed to tear his eyes away from the glorious structure to simply nod in response. "What about you, Goofy?" He curiously asked.

The knight in question froze. "Uh... It was such a long time ago, Ah' yuck. Who really remembers?"

Riku didn't bother to press on. He had other and more important things on his mind...like the little thief who stole the tracking devise and may have just compromised the whole mission! When Donald said there was a town nearby (and he had said the word _town_, not _city_) what the teenager had expected was about a couple hectares of land with five hundred, give or take one thousand, Greeks busy with household chores or money-making jobs and a few cows, chickens and sheep roaming around.

That was the picture in his head and what Donald had led on – _not_ an entire freaking capital!

Even Goofy, the oh so calm and civil knight, did feel the slightest bit of frustration for Donald not telling then that it was Thebes they were going to have to search inside out.

"Whatever," Riku tore himself out of his thoughts, along with Goofy. "Right now we need to get that ruby back."

"_First_ find Amalia." Goofy added.

"_If_ that was even her real name," Donald furthered.

The trio made off down the street. Goofy and Riku weren't quite sure where they were going, but (sort of) trusted Donald's sense of direction. "Where do we start?" Goofy's deep and dopey-like voice asked through the rumble of everyone around them.

Riku thought for a moment. "Don't you have a picture of her?" Donald, in response, pulled out the small rectangular photograph. "We can just show that to different people and ask if they've seen her."

Donald nodded, "Great idea! But watch who you speak to. Some of the people around here are a few olives short of a tree, if you know what I mean." He waited for a response. None came. "I mean their crazy,"

"Yeah, we got that." Riku quickly replied.

The wizard turned and they continued on walking down the street until they reached a set of lights. Donald, distracted and still speaking to the two behind him about the "crack-pots and dangers of this city", kept on walking on to the busy street that was flooding with cars.

"No, Donald, stop!" Riku cried and they both ran up to the oblivious duck. As suspected a car with a driver with major speed-limit-breaking issues sped deathly close to Donald. He didn't exactly hit Donald, per say. The wind speed as he came past was what slammed into him, making him spin uncontrollably and turn into a live twister.

"WHA-AH-AHA-AHK!" Donald cried as he spun up in the air and dizzily landed on Riku's shoulder.

"GET OFF THE ROAD, YOU MORON!" The driver screamed.

"HEY, I'M WALKING HERE!" Donald screamed back, leaning forward and clutching on to Riku's hair to keep from falling. Goofy and Riku stared with wide eyed expressions. "See what I mean, these people are nuts!" He said when back on the ground, turning to address Riku. "Watch out for any more raging crack-pots, kid."

"Oh, I think I'm looking at one..." The teen muttered, soft enough for only Goofy to hear, who watched Donald waddle away with a thoughtful expression.

"Well," The knight began, "At least now we know how he got this way."

Riku allowed a grin to spread across his face, but vanished as soon as it came when Donald shouted from up ahead, "I HEARD THAT!"

The two quickly followed.

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A girl with a hood over her head walked unnoticed through the streets of Thebes, a bright red ruby clutched tightly in her hand. With a proud smile she inspected her prize once more over. The bright red gleam shone through her fingers like a flame and she kept it close to her body, careful not to let anyone see.

_...And to think I would have just walked away... _Amalia thought. If she hadn't have felt the power surging from the small little object she wouldn't even have discovered it. To anyone who didn't take the time to look it really wouldn't seem like much, but right now Amalia was almost suffocated by the power this thing contained inside it, and it wasn't really _that_ hard to take away that silver haired guy's focus and the other two animals' (she was still trying to wrap her head around that one) patience long enough to snatch the stone right out of his pocket.

After all, it is a ruby, so who knows how much it'll go for on the black market.

That was the only way Amalia shopped and sold: the black market. She figured the ordinary pawn shop to boring and dull and, _really_, the normal market was far too goody-goody for a thief like her.

Amalia kept her hood tight over her head so that it shielded her face from anyone's view, but still allowed her to see where she was going. Her raven hair hung around her neck and over her chest, swaying slightly as she walked along. She did actually catch the attention of some of the passerby's, but that was only the usual looks she received by the average male. It wasn't that much of a concern to her, though sometimes she did find it annoying. But mostly just amusing.

Quickly ducking into an alleyway Amalia made her way through the familiar maze of twists and turns she had been down so many times before, stopping when an old but sturdy little abandoned shop with a curtain for a door, a sign with unreadable letters of the world's language, and barricaded windows came into view.

The girl stopped at the foot of the porch steps to look down at the shining red glow through her closed fist one last time, before pushing the ripped purple fabric aside and stepped into the centre that was flooding with people; crooks just like herself. The room was long with an average width. On two walls opposite each other were numerous stalls selling anything under the sun where many stood in front of, screaming at each other over who was going to get what with the workers behind the counter trying feebly to settle down their customers.

This was the world's hub – the black market. They all had one, it was just a matter of knowing where to look.

Amalia didn't stop at any of the stalls at the beginning of the room, but continued travelling down, down into the very back of the room. In the midst of the crowed a familiar stabbing, almost hungry, feeling began welling up in her core, and Amalia half ran down the rest of the way. The brunette finally stopped when she reached a private section in the very back of the hub. All it was was wooden pillars keeping a mass of multicoloured curtains up in the air as makeshift walls. Inside was a round coffee table in the centre with numerous pillows scattered around the room along with broken bottles and pieces of what used to be furniture, playing cards and lanterns.

The occupants of this section were men of all shapes and sizes surrounded by scantily dressed women in togas that barely hid their dignity.

"Amalia!" A tall and burly man exclaimed, clumsily pushing off a woman who was planted on his lap and stumbled over to Amalia. He was fragranced with the stench of white liquor.

_...Great, _Amalia thought bitterly, _he's waisted again..._

Amalia had in no less time pulled her hood off her head when the man scooped her up into a smothering bear hug. She gagged and wiggled out off it. "There's mah gurl!" He said in a lazy and slurred voice. "Was worried you weren't coming back,"

"Really?" She faked delight.

"Nah, not really." One younger and thinner man who lay on the ground answered. "We were just debating whether you finally ditched us for good or got caught and taken to jail."

Amalia placed a hand on her hip and smirked. "Now now, Georgie, I'm one of the best. You know that. I _never_ get caught!"

"That's why we keep you around," The burly man said. Amalia didn't know his real name, exactly. Everyone simply referred to him as "Boss".

The man named Georgie narrowed his eyes in her direction teasingly, "No, we keep you around because you're nice-looking and you draw in lots of customers. That's the only reason, sweetheart."

Amalia was about to throw him a nasty retort when Boss chimed in, "Hey now, be nice. We're all family here!"

Amalia grimaced at the word "family". She had never really accepted that word in her vocabulary, never had actually stuck around someplace long enough to sustain a "family" like relationship – and she hardly thought of these rude, sexist drunks even close to family. That was how she spent her life now, moving around from place to place before anyone got to know her too much, or she got to know them – either way it didn't really matter.

Amalia felt human relationships tiresome and taxing with too much maintenance and work on her part, finding men simple minded and predictable, and thought women to be gossips and two-faced – not all of them of course, but most of the ones she'd met. This is the reason she now drifted through her life in emancipation and never spent more than two months in one world, sometimes even two _weeks_. Plus, she knew enough from experience that many people are not always what they seem and who they say they are, and betrayal can be almost effortless.

Sure she encountered one or two people in the past that can be considered acquaintances, maybe even friends, but that couldn't count because Amalia never kept communication with anyone she met in a world once gone.

She snapped out of her daydream when Boss turned to the pillows and sat back down. "So," he took another swing of whine, "what have you got for me today?"

Amalia smiled and reached into her pocket, pulling out the tracking device, "You're going to _love_ this one," and held it up for everyone in the room to see. When she did so every face in the room seemed to sober up quite quickly.

Boss ordered everyone to leave except Georgie and two others Amalia didn't bother learning the names of (simply referred to them as Brute 1 and Brute 2). Amalia handed the device to Boss when he asked for it and watched the man spin the jewel around and around in his fingers.

"So," She began, smug and confident. "What do you think?"

Boss's response, though, was _not_ anything near what she was expecting. "I think you're trying to pull one on me."

Amalia froze, blinking a few times. "What?"

Boss's shoulders hunched over, and his post drunken features turned into an angry snarl. "This is not jewel, that's what! I wouldn't pay a cent for this, doubt anybody else will, either!" he paused and added, "Where did you get this?"

Amalia gasped, confused and shocked. "It doesn't matter where I got it from. That is an authentic ruby, it's –"

"Plastic, wretch!" Boss finished, throwing the ruby back at Amalia.

"Plastic?" She whispered to herself mainly and inspected the red crystal on her palm. Sure enough, it looked real to her – and couldn't he see the glow illuminating from it? She frowned, angry now. "What the hell, it is _not_ plastic! You're getting old, old man. See?" She tapped the ruby with her nail, listening to the sound it made, "Not plastic. And can't you see it _glowing_?"

Boss, in a fit of fury, threw his goblet at the wall, causing Amalia to jump when it shattered to shards. "Your eyes and fading, girl! There is no glow – only a cheat!"

Suddenly he went silent, and Amalia was pretty sure everyone else in the large, illegal room did also. "I'm afraid this cancels our...previous agreement."

"What?" Amalia gasped. All the air in her lungs just left, leaving her breathless. Her lavender eyes widened and she backed up toward the door. "No... No! You said that if I brought you something I wouldn't have to do it anymore!"

"I said if you bought something _valuable_," He shouted. "Sorry, kid, but you _will_ deliver tonight."

Without another word Amalia quickly shoved the crystal safely in her pocket and bolted out of the room made of curtains. Behind her she heard Boss cry "After her!" before the three goons appeared. She ran faster down the room and noticed that the crowd had grown since she first entered. Groaning, Amalia outstretched her arm and let the familiar warmth course itself down the length before a bright light appeared surrounded by numerous white sparks, and a giant metal key replaced it moments later.

The thief expertly swung the blade behind her back and let a red blaze shoot out, impacting feet from the target. She cursed at her miss and kept running. The numbers of people seemed to be ascending by the second and before she knew it, Amalia was right in the centre of the crowd. The nauseating and hungry pains struck her stomach once again, compressed by the dozens of bodies.

Amalia's keybalde disappeared without her consent, causing her to curse again and fall to the floor as the uncomfortable sensation grew. She was caught. Tonight wasn't going to be pretty...

* * *

"Hey, look," Goofy pointed to a nearby poster hung up on a pillar. After an hour of no luck finding their mystery girl, the trio decided to take some time to rest before they continued their search.

Riku, Donald and Goofy walked up to the pillar that the knight had pointed out.

"Looks like there's some sort of party on tonight," Riku examined.

Donald perked up, his throbbing feet no longer an issue. "We should check there later tonight! I bet the place'll be flooding with thieves, with all the jewellery and everything. A pearl necklace can go up to 40 munny in any market!"

Puzzled stares came Donald's way when he finished his sentence, with Riku and Goofy looking at the duck strangely until Riku spoke up, "The fact that you know that concerns me a little..."

Goofy chuckled, "Oh, Donald's a jewel thief at heart, Ah-yuck! Remember last year in Agrabah when you tired to take that big red rock, and the whole place ended up caving –"

"Shut it, goof." Donald grumbled and Riku laughed little, before something caught his eye.

Right there, at the foot of an ally way, hung up in the shadows and might have never been seen, was a sepia rectangular poster with a picture of a boy with wild, spiky hair. Donald and Goofy stared at Riku in his frozen stance, asking what was wrong a couple times before deciding to look over to what he was staring at.

As if reading each other's minds all three immediately bolted over to the ally. "Oh my..." Goofy gasped with his usual slur. Sure enough there was Sora in a detailed drawing surrounded by description and the blood curling black print of the word "wanted" at the top.

Riku read the words aloud, not wanting to believe it. "Wanted Alive. One million dollar reward when found..." Riku mumbled the rest of the poster, tracing along the description of appearance, age, height and weight.

"$1, 000, 000 reward?" Donald murmured unbelievably.

"Who would want Sora captured?" Goofy asked.

Riku continued to stare at the poster. "I can think of a few people," Something was wrong with this picture. The teen couldn't quite put his finger on it right away, but it was there, in the back of his mind and on the tip of his tongue.

_...What could it – There!_ Riku's eyes widened. "Uh, guys?" He said. "This poster's pretty detailed, but you know what I'm _not_ seeing?"

The two animals thought for a moment before it hit them, and both shouted, "A delivery address!"

Riku nodded, "Exactly. I doesn't say where to take him once captured." Another thought occurred then. "It's like...whoever made this _Wanted _poster...isn't really expecting anyone to actually capture Sora."

Even though it clearly said "Wanted _Alive_", Riku thought that this person would only want him alive just so they could kill him themselves. It made him feel sick to the stomach. "Still," He snapped out of his thoughts, "there are some people around that would do anything to become rich."

"Like Donald!" Goofy chimed in.

"Yeah,"

"Hey!" The duck quacked. It would have been a stronger yell but the wizard was too much in distress about his friend's face on a Wanted poster, as was Goofy.

Riku, feeling angry and not quite wanting to stand around in one place _debating_ the matter, when he knows that there are possibly hundreds of people out there hunting his freind, ripped he poster off of the wall and stuffed it in his pocket. With a quick turn Riku made off down the street, with Donald and Goofy trailing behind and fighting to keep up, the same knawing feeling in the pits of their stomachs.

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Well, this was a quick chapter with not much action in it, but I felt that I really needed to get an update in soon because I haven't in soooo long! Hopefully the next one will be longer.

**I have nothing else to say, besides Please Review. **

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	27. Songstress

**Hey Guys! I'm back with chap 26!**

**In the previous chapter I may have raised a few eyebrows with the whole "It" thing, but don't worry; It's nothing sexual. Haha. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the song.**

Enjoy!

_Chapter Twenty-Seven: Songstress_

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"Something is not right." Riku spoke suddenly as they waited in line that night. His voice was drenched with caution over a sprinkle of raw surprise and suspense, though it didn't rise above a whisper.

A short feathery wizard and a tall hunched-shouldered knight turned to the young Keyblader, expressions puzzled. Riku shifted his weight from one foot to the other, eyes trailing irritably to the long line of people ahead of them. He felt impatient, tired, and Sora's poster was burning a hole in his pocket.

Keeping the whisper, even though the volume of the crowd around them would easily smother his voice if he were communicating normally to his companions, Riku continued. "We've been here, what, 5 – 6 hours and haven't had any trouble from – or even _seen_ – a single Heartless."

Donald and Goofy shared an uncomfortable glance. Either can admit that the thought never actually occurred to them, and they hadn't even noticed, the lack of the little shadowy party. No world, no matter how much you had wiped out in the past, would ever be completely clean of Heartless and Nobodies. In the large hall just inside their view, the melodic sound of the orchestra playing a song fit to relax and calm their guests, was having the exact opposite affect of a trio of other-worlders. A feeling of worry was quick to lurk onto the three, along with a strange new sense of claustrophobia.

All they wanted now was to get off of this world. Because, for some odd reason, being on a world where Heartless cease to exit seems worse then being on one where they are swarming.

Riku took his gaze to the starry sky above his head and examined the view, eyes narrowing when they caught one particular constellation that bore an uncanny resemblance to Donald, Goofy and Sora. Shaking that thought away, Riku brought himself back down to earth and caught something in the distance. In the shadows of the ally, another darker shadow could somehow be distinguished. Someone was standing deadly still, with their face and body concealed under a black veil that did not allow the onlooker's gender to be determined. Riku's breath caught in his throat and body temperature lowered. He squinted into the night in attempt to see more clearly.

The caped entity did not move or sway, but rather kept their eyes locked onto Riku in a way that gave him a cold spike of fear. That was how they stayed for what felt like, to Riku, minutes, but could very well have been mere seconds. Then, just like that, the onlooker about-faced and disappeared into the shadows – Riku catching a flash of something silver moments before.

The adolescent boy reached out absently and began to make his way over to the very spot in the shadows of the ally where the caped being vanished, only to be stopped by a hard voice shouting, "Hey! No cuttin' line, kid! You step out, you go to the back!"

Riku stopped suddenly and found himself staring down at a no more then two feet of a man that bore a remarkable resemblance to a goat, with an angry scowl on his face. Before he could utter a single response, both Donald and Goofy shouted from behind, "Phil!"

The goat man jumped backward, startled. "Hey, well if it ain't the junior heroes..." Phil trailed off when his eyes landed on Riku. "Uh...Sora? You seem different. Finally ditched that crazy hairdo, huh? Not like this one's any better – "

"I'm...not Sora." Riku informed him, confused on how anyone could mix _them_ up.

Goofy spoke up, "This here's Riku," He slapped his back once. "He's a friend!"

"Oh, right. I knew that...just, uh, testing." Phil covered. When the others looked at him strangely the Satyr turned to his left and bellowed out "Hey Herc!", startling the others slightly.

A tall, well built man with bronze hair and a worriers toga jogged over to the four, a bright smile appearing as soon as he noticed who Phil was waving him over to. "Why, would you look who it is!" He exclaimed excitedly. "Long time no see, guys. Where've you been?"

Riku only kind-of listened to the conversation between friends playing out in front of him. His head was somewhere else. Riku found his eyes shifting toward that dark ally again, and had half a mind to slip away from the four – not that they would really notice, anyway – and investigate further. Might even find a little Heartless and put an end to that uncomfortable gnawing at his gut. The other half was locked onto the girl. Amalia – if that's even her real name, there was no way of knowing for sure at the moment. She stole the one thing that they needed to find this Twilight Prince and complete their mission, which King Mickey hadn't really told them much about, if you think about it.

And this whole Twilight Prince fiasco was just mind-numbing. First they need to find him, where ever he may be, and that's _anywhere_ in the universe, _then_ they need to convince him of who he is, and then somehow find a way to persuade him to help them close this gate that will lock all the Ghosts inside the Twilight Realm forever. And as if that's not hard enough, there's the actual Ghosts that are ten times harder to kill then some of the strongest Heartless out there! Not only did they come from the future and shouldn't exist in this time, but should not have come into existence at all.

But, the biggest question on Riku's mind, was who actually created the Ghosts in the first place?

Somehow in the middle of his mind rambling, Riku, Donald and Goofy had begun being ushered into the large ballroom from all the way at the back of the line. They received many, many, _many _angry looks as they passed. Before they knew it the group was standing right in the middle of the ballroom, staring at all the dancing and conversing couples, trying to spot Amalia out from within them.

It's going to be a long night.

**Oooooooooooooooooo**

Amalia cried out in agony, almost doubling over clutching her stomach. The tight grip of the large hand grasping her arm showed no kindness as the man in which it belonged to forcibly pulled the girl through the streets of Thebes. Amalia's dark hair completely shield her face from anyone's view, which she felt happy about because she didn't want to give the cruel excuses for human beings the satisfaction of seeing the tears that were spilling out of her eyes.

Her long toga, made of a shimmering, brilliant red material she was made to dispose her previous attire for, often got tangled around her feet, causing her to trip and almost crash to the ground every now and then. This seemed to frustrate the brute and he gripped her arm so tight it was beginning to bruise, and the cold air was no kinder to her creamy skin, piercing it like ice.

After a while, the man who had a hold of her grew tired to pulling and threw Amalia forward, where she landed on the cold, cracked stone ground quite hard. Amalia whimpered silently at the impact, making sure they couldn't hear. Out behind the big brute stepped Georgie and Boss. The latter wore a cunning, sickening grin on his mouth.

Suddenly a sharp shooting pain attacked Amalia's stomach, like a dagger piercing her flesh, and she wailed again.

"Don't worry," Boss sounded anything but concerned. "The pain will be gone once the job's done."

"No!" She yelled, her own voice echoing in her ears, making her head hurt. "I can't! I will not! I _won't_ do this for you any more – YOU DON'T OWN ME!" She screamed.

Boss knelt down close to Amalia, making her head spin as another roll of pain came crashing down upon her due to the proximity between them. "Oh, but I do, beautiful." He whispered in a low, intimidating growl. "I do own you..." Suddenly, without warning, Boss pulled out a sharp dagger from his belt and swiped a clean cut on Amalia's forearm. Amalia cried out and he lifted the dagger to her nose, forcing her to take in the sight and smell of her crimson blood lathered over the knife.

"I have your blood," he pointed, "so then I have _you_. Understand? So that means that you, you little _brat_..." Boss moved his hand to the top of Amalia's head and grabbed a fistful of her hair. "Will do exactly as I say, if you know what's good for you. Capish?" Amalia hissed in response. "Atta girl. There's my good little siren."

Boss let go of Amalia and backed away just as the next round of pain came. She gasped and clutched her stomach, lavender eyes swimming with fresh tears, not all for the physical pain. Boss always had this way of making Amalia feel lower then dirt. Like she was worthless, just a toy. Sirens had obviously come a long way since the old days: where the name was once feared by all who sailed the seas. Back then a siren was a powerful, dangerous creature and a force not to be reckoned with.

But now, the name held a different air.

Amalia was a rare case because there are so few sirens left in the worlds, and people viewed them with a different state of mind now. Take Boss, for example. He looks at Amalia and thinks "money and slavery". While, when Amalia thinks "siren" the words "pain, grief and torture" come to mind. When she gets close to someone she can physically _feel_ their soul, making her throat dry and her stomach churn with hunger.

Sometimes it gets so bad that she can feel them from a mile away, and is worse when she is in a big group of people. Like tonight, for instance. The entire city in one small, packed place which she is being forced in to the middle off...

She screamed this time – loud. The hunger lessens her ability to use her keyblade to the point where she can't even summon it, so she screamed in hopes that someone will hear and maybe – just _maybe_ – come and see what's going on. One thing you should never underestimate is a sirens call. With enough strength and the right frequency it could shatter your eardrums if not careful.

In one swift motion Boss's hand slammed hard into Amalia's cheek, sending her half way across the pavement and ending her scream. "SHUT UP!"

Boss waved a hand at his two thugs and they, in loyal obedience, lifted Amalia off the floor and began carrying her into the ballroom through the back entrance.

**Oooooooooooooooooo**

Riku's ears picked up some sort of wail in the distance, very soft over the loud chatter, laughter and music, but there. He twitched his head slightly in the direction he thinks in came from, not quite sure what it was.

"Did you hear that?" He asked Donald and Goofy, where the latter, in mid bite of a turkey leg, mumbled with a full mouth, "Hear what?"

Riku shrugged, "I just thought I heard something,"

Donald turned away from the big red rubies dangling from a woman's ears. "I didn't hear anything."

Riku wordlessly nodded once and dropped it. The gentle orchestral music the band was playing put him on an even bigger edge now that they were in full range of it. He was still expecting a heartless to come jumping out of the shadows any second and attack some poor, innocent civilian. Or maybe even a Ghost. The last one he'd come up against left pretty quickly and didn't really put up much of a fight (unless you count taking Riku by the neck and lifting him twelve feet in the air, of course).

So far in the last thirty minutes, Goofy had almost knocked over two candle sticks, four plates, one crystal vase and taken the table cloth on a little journey with him. Donald went all goo-goo eyed over three pearl necklaces, four mosaic vases and one giant sapphire the side of his head. Both of which almost tripped a waitress onto her bottom in their race to get the last finger sandwich (Which neither got in the end, as it ended up on the floor with a very annoyed waitress scowling at them, muttering something like "This is _so_ not worth four munny an hour"), bothered a host on what bands will be playing tonight, the entertainment, and approximately how many course meals they will be receiving, and ultimately scared at least half the room because of their appearances.

_Honestly_. It was a wonder to Riku they weren't getting thrown out at this very moment!

And he was positive this was because Phil and Hercules were part hosts, because, quite frankly, if it weren't for that they'd be out the door.

After about the fifth girl approached Riku asking for a dance – which he quietly muttered a polite decline, like with the other four – he finally turned to the dog and duck who were acting younger then _he_ was and hissed at them to calm down. The only person Riku wanted to "dance" with was Amalia, and get the freaking crystal back!

"How long is this ball s'posed to last, anyway?" Riku asked.

He wasn't expecting Hercules and Phil, who appeared out of no where, to answer, "About all night."

Riku sighed. "Of course,"

"So what brings you three here, anyway?" Phil questioned. About a minute into Donald explaining the whole ordeal with the prince to Hercules and Phil, Riku cut in,

"And we're also looking for this girl," He said before looking to Donald and Goofy. "Do you still have that picture?"

Donald muttered something of a "duh" while Goofy pulled it out of his pocket and showed the two. "We think her name is Amalia." Goofy informed. "Does she look at all familiar to you?"

The hero and satyr studied the photo for a moment before Phil nodded once. "Yeah, think I've seen her wondering round Thebes a couple times. Black jacket with the hood up?"

"Yeah,"

"Yup, I've seen her. Don't know her name, anything about her or where she is now, but I've seen her." He nodded.

Riku also took this chance to ask them about the poster he ripped off the wall. They were, after all, friends with Sora. Riku pulled the sheet out of his back pocket. Unwrapping it, he began, "Also, have you seen this?"

Recognition flashed in Phil and Hercules' eyes and they looked at the picture sadly. "Yes," Hercules answered. "Someone's been hanging them all over the city. I ripped about five up three days ago."

"So what has the kid done?"

"Nothing," Riku replied sharply at Phil's question, suddenly feeling defensive. "He hasn't done anything, and if he did, we would have known about it."

"He is the Keyblade master, after all," Hercules cut in. "It's been proven that there are people out there who want him gone."

"Sixteen is a dangerous age in the keyblade world, 'specially for a master. What with the morphing of light and darkness inside their heart, of course." Donald lectured.

"But not above eighteen!" Goofy suddenly bellowed.

Riku frowned. "What happens at eighteen?" Donald sent Goofy daggers and the knight closed his mouth tight, flashing red and looking like he'd just said something he shouldn't have. He changed the subject back onto something random and didn't answer. But there was something in the statement that gave Riku unease, and he wanted to know what it was. "Goofy? What do you mean? What happens at eigh – "

There was a soft boom before all the lights went out, leaving the room in a very dim, orange glow that was illuminating from the small table candles. There was a momentary panic and confusion from all in the ballroom before a soft, beautiful voice came from the centre of the room. Riku craned his neck to look over all the curious heads and shoulders, just as a sort of bell-like music was beginning to come out of the shadows, complementing the voice perfectly. It sounded both relaxing and familiar.

Suddenly, a figure moving gracefully across the dance floor caught Riku's eye, and he gasped. It was Amalia! He couldn't believe it. Riku suddenly found himself frozen to the spot at the sight of her, but, it wasn't exactly finding her that made him freeze, but her appearance.

She stood in the middle of a large circle of people, wearing a long red toga that touched the ground, made of a velvet like material of many layers, a floral design woven into the top transparent layer, almost shimmering against the candle light. Long flowing hair the colour of midnight itself hung around her waist, swaying gently with her every movement, glittering as it did. Her skin was the colour of shining pearls, looking just as smooth to the point where she appeared to actually _glowing. _Red lips and long eyelashes. But, the most shocking, and stunning, thing of all, was that Amalia actually _was glowing_. There was a white sort of light surrounding her striking body, and it silhouetted onto the floor in the shape of a Sun.

Riku felt dizzy just looking at her. The music flowed through his ears free and easy; the haunting bell-like chimes making him feel slightly fatigued. Amalia began to sing again, slow beautiful.

_Dancing bears, painted wings_

_things I almost remember_

Her voice, Donald suddenly realised, was actually quite strange. Behind the main vocal was another voice which echoed the first, and a third which complemented both – but all belonged to her. And to top it all off the music seemed to be coming out of no where.

_And a song someone sings_

_once upon a December_

The small feathery wizard gasped as the realisation hit. "A siren!" He hissed.

Riku had managed to brake out of his trance, but Goofy was still watching. "A what?" The young keyblader asked.

"She's a siren! Amalia is a _siren! _Oh, this isn't good..."

_Someone holds me safe and warm_

"Well what do we do? Do we stop her?" Riku asked, ready to summon his keyblade at the moments notice. Donald looked over to Goofy, frowned and bonged him hard on the knee to wake him up.

"Owch!" The knight hissed, Riku quickly shushing him.

_Horses prance through a sliver storm_

"No, don't!" Donald yelled when Riku began to walk forward. "We need to protect ourselves first."

Donald thought for a solution as Riku and Goofy processed this information. The court mage quickly summoned his staff and began waving it above his head, and before either of the two could say anything Donald whispered as loud as he could "_Reflect_!"

_Figures dancing gracefully _

A subtle blue light suddenly burst out of Donald's staff and fell over the three of them in warm, glittery dust. Donald sighed and disposed of his wand, and when Riku lifted his arm up he could see a soft blue bubble about half an inch off his skin.

_Across my memory_

"What's this?" Goofy asked, gesturing to the bubble Donald just cast over them all.

"A reflect spell. It'll stop her magic from getting to us."

Amalia had began humming simple notes, moving around the dance floor with the grace of a swan; red dress swishing around her ankles in a large circle, making her look as if she were simply floating on air. Riku observed from a distance at first, seeing as how the closer Amalia got to someone, the more their eyes would glaze over. Riku began to move closer to the main part of the ball room, weaved around all the glazed and slightly swaying bodies until he reached the front row. At the corner of Riku's eye, a little dark shadow zoomed passed his vision, but he found himself ignoring it. Riku's sight was focussed onto Amalia.

Amalia spun and twirled and leaped across the floor, all the while the three voices humming, soft and hypnotic. "Hah ah _ah_..._hah_ ah _ah_...la la _la-_la la _la-la_..." Riku, not realising that he had caught a suspicious eye from an on looker hidden in the shadows, stepped even closer as the songstress continued her song, the music raising in pitch and volume.

_Someone holds me safe and warm_

_horses prance through a silver storm _

_figures dancing gracefully_

_across my memory_

A warm golden light, Riku noticed, had begun to surround all the hypnotised members of the audience, beginning as a low candle flicker and growing into a semi-bright glow.

_Far away, long ago_

_glowing dim as an ember_

Riku literally saw the light blow out in everyone eyes, and was finally joined by Donald and Goofy just as he decided it was time to put a stop to this.

_Things my heart used to know_

Riku stepped on to the dance floor, now right in the middle of the full swing of things.

_Things it yearns to remember..._

He walked closer and closer to Amalia.

_And a song someone sings_

Any second now...

_Once upon and December_

_BAAM_!

Just like that Riku and Amalia collided, cutting off the music and her song abruptly. Riku grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around to face him. What he was greeted with was a look of pure shook and slight horror. All the lights flickered back on.

"This stops now." Riku growled in a low whisper.

Amalia continued to stare. "What – How – How are you...still concious?" Then she noticed the small shield around Riku's body and eyes widened in realisation. "A reflect spell..." She murmured before gathering her bearings.

"You should _not_ have done that!" Amalia yelled and pushed herself out of Riku's hold. "Do you have any idea what you've done, moron?"

Riku was taken aback slightly from the sudden out burst, but quickly composed himself. "What _I've_ done?" Donald and Goofy joined his side. "I've stopped you from trying to turn this entire room into your slaves, that is what I've done!"

"No, you haven't," She backed up, "You have just made the situation _much_ worse."

"Um, Riku..." Donald tried to gain his attention, but Riku ignored him and summoned his keyblade.

"You are coming with us." Suddenly Amalia shocked him by summoning her own version of the blade in his hand.

She smiled smugly. "Yeah, I've got one of these two – and I am not going _any where_ with you!"

"Riku," Goofy tried.

"Look," Amalia snarled, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes. "I know it's hard to believe, but this isn't of my doing."

"Ok, so you weren't hypnotising them?" Riku said with a disbelieving tone.

"Well, technically yes, but it's complicated – "

"And you didn't steal that red crystal?"

"Yes, but – " Amalia sighed and rubbed her temple. "Look, that isn't the problem right now..."

Riku frowned, "You stole something that is rightfully ours!"

"Garr!" Amalia groaned and clenched her fists. She glared angrily at Riku before lifting up her dress to her thighs and pulling something off of a little leather belt wrapped around her right upper leg. "Fine, you want the stupid thing, take it!" She threw the red tracking crystal at Riku. "Wouldn't give me anything above an cent, anyway." She rolled her eyes. Sensing Riku was about to say something, Amalia cut in first, "Back to the matter at hand: do you have any idea what happens when you interrupt a Siren's Song?"

"That?" The word belonged to both Donald and Goofy, who were currently staring horrified at something behind Riku and Amalia. The two then turned around to see a crowd of five hundred people staring at them with expressions filled with anger and hatred. Riku and Amalia poised their weapons in self defence as Donald and Goofy got theirs out. The four began backing away from the crowd of murderous looking people.

"Oh, by the way," Amalia spoke, her words directed at Riku but her eyes never once leaving the people before them. "Just so we're clear, this is all your fault."

**

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Hey guys. Sorry for another cliffy ending, but I just reeeeaaally wanted to get an update in since it's been so long since I had. I once again ask you to please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes. I know that

_**Anastasia**_** isn't a Disney movie, but I just like the song and I think it fit well with the scene. What did you think?**

**I really hope I'm not causing people to loose interest in this story because of long update gaps, but I'll try my best to get the next one in soon-ish. **

**PS: I know I say that all the time, but I really **_**will**_** try this time. **

**Anyhoo... Please Review!**

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	28. The Red Siren

**Hello and welcome back! I don't really have anything to share so I'll just get right to the point:**

**Enjoy!**

_Chapter twenty-eight: The Red Siren_

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Riku, Donald, Goofy and Amalia slowly backed closer and closer to the exit, hitting anyone who came at them with the hilts of their weapons in order to simply push the people back instead of injuring them in any way. After all, it wasn't really their fault they had been turned into violent zombies. No, it was the little pick-pocketing girl in red that Riku blamed!

One man came at Riku, eyes filled with a slight insanity that doesn't belong to him, growling with with rage and arms up in the air ready to attack. Riku gripped his blade tight around the neck and jabbed the man with the handle, which caused him to fall back on the ground several paces away, clearly winded. For a split second, some recognition of conciousness flashed in his eyes, but was gone twice as fast as it appeared. Donald was in the middle of casting some sort of shield spell in front of the group to protect them from the people-turned-zombies. Goofy was bonking his shield off of anyone who came near him, on the head, stomach, arms, back. It looked pretty hard, too, and Riku almost yelled at him to stop. Beside him, Amalia was muttering something under her breath, her eyes closing every few seconds, only to snap open again when she felt something come in contact with her skin.

"Can't you get them to stop?" Goofy asked over the commotion of all the people tripping over tables and knocking things on the floor in their mission to rip the four apart. Amalia didn't answer. Her lips continued to move a hundred miles an hour and she absently hit anyone who came near her on the head.

"Is there any way to turn it off?" Donald tried and a slight frown was the only response Amalia gave.

Riku decided to push further. "Amalia?" He spoke loudly and shook her shoulder.

Amalia actually met his gaze this time, but the look in her eyes was far from happy. "What?" She snapped. "Cant you see I'm trying! It's not that easy, y'know!"

"Why?" Donald asked, curiously.

"_Well_," she spat irritably. "Because silver over here interrupted my song, I only half hypnotised them. And when that happens you're left with a bunch of angry and confused and very, _very_ scared people on you like bee's to honey trying to figure out what the hell's going on and why they suddenly have this serial killer rage in them!"

"Then just..._un_-hypnotise them," Goofy suggested timidly.

"It's not that simple!" She growled before sighing and dropping her keyblade. "Looks like I'm going to have to do this the hard way... Give me about three minutes."

Riku took a look at the large mass of people advancing on them, getting tougher and tougher, and asked, "Do we _have_ three minutes?"

Amalia hesitated, "...We'll see."

"Great, that makes us feel _much_ better!" Donald grumbled.

Goofy turned to her, "What are you going to do?"

The siren half sighed-half hissed in irritation and answered Goofy in a voice that showed she wasn't trying to hide her annoyance, "I am going to "_un-hypnotise"_ _them!_"

Goofy pouted slightly at Amalia's insult, his canine forehead crinkling and his lip slightly curling, but shook it off because of the bigger issue at hand. Amalia turned to the three, leaving Riku to have to knock people away from both himself and her, too. "Ok, Duck boy – "

"_Donald_,"

"Whatever. I need you to create and shield around yourself, the weird dog thingy – "

"It's _Goofy_, Ah' yuck!"

" – and the guy with the _hair_" – she swooped her hand over her cranium – "that's aging faster than he is."

Riku didn't even bother.

"And after you do that block your ears as well as you can! Got it?" Amalia concluded, just as Riku knocked another two men and women away from her. Now that she was talking, Riku couldn't help but notice the slightest bit on a southern accent in her speech.

Donald nodded. The other two grunted in response. Anything to get out of this situation. "Alright – what about you?"

"No!" She quickly said when she say Donald taking out his staff, "Not me. The shield will dull the sound. Now. Do it – quickly!"

Donald raised his staff high above his head and waved it in a circle once, twice, three times before bringing it back down and waving it in a slow, zigzag movement. Finally, spinning the wand in his feathery hands once, the wizard brought the handle down to the ground hard and shouted "_Reflect!_". Sparks flew out of the end of Donald's staff and the group once again found them selves covered in light green glow, only this time it was in a dome shape.

This seemed to confuse everyone slightly, thus giving Amalia a head start, but they soon recovered and began pounding of the green shield. Like they were told, the three disposed of their weapons and plugged their ears as well as they could.

Outside they could see Amalia with her chin tilted up, arms slightly outspread and her eyes completely closed. Her mouth was moving again and they could slightly make out her voice, but not the words. The three were shocked to see that no one was actually touching her, only trying to get Riku, Donald and Goofy. After a while everyone just stood still, blank expressions locked on Amalia.

"How's it going?" Goofy dare shout through the shield barrier.

"Almost there – _stop bugging me!_" Amalia responded. Her voice from that point got louder and the three could now hear what she was saying, but not understand, on the account of it being in some foreign language they couldn't place. The familiar golden light began surrounding each individual once again. Riku took a look at the girl to see that her hair had began floating in mid air, and her dress was moving as if a strong wind were pushing it. There were also small beads of sweat on her forehead and her cheeks held a rosy pink blush. Soon she began to glow a soft white light tinged with red glitter highlights. Then all of a sudden there was a large explosion of bright light and the three had to shield their eyes from it's intensity.

After a few moments Riku, Donald and Goofy re-opened them to spy the scene in front of them. Every invited member of the ball was on the floor, looking dazed, confused and tired. Slightly scared also. The sound in the room built up when everyone began talking over one another, wondering what had just happened. Amalia was also leaning up against the shield dome, looking tired and worn out.

Once the three gathered their bearings, Donald quickly took down the shield, not realising that Amalia was leaning on it. Once it was gone she fell from the sudden lack of a wall, and Riku reflexively caught her. The sudden contact caused Amalia to gasp and flinch out of Riku hold, summoning her keyblade and pointing it straight at him.

"Whoa there," Riku said, lifting his palms in the air in a surrender gesture.

Amalia's weapon disappeared almost as fast as it came. She sighed, "Sorry...reflexes. I don't like being touched." Riku only nodded in response, and the two soon got distracted by the sound of Donald and Goofy trying to get everyone to "Exit through the left main entrance in an orderly fashion". They saw the dynamic duo waving their wand and shield in a big circle trying to direct the traffic, but were out of luck because no one was moving, only standing around group rumbling on what they think just happened, or that they had no idea what just happened. This resulted in Donald, finally reaching the end of his tether, sending lightning bolts through the air with his staff, ultimately causing a huge panic which resulted in a riot.

Riku, Amalia and Goofy, and Phil and Hercules, who had just joined them, had to try and keep their footing amongst all the screaming people rushing to get the heck away from Donald as fast as they can. Soon, after about thirty seconds flat of chaos, there was absolute silence. The six just stood there for some time before Riku, Amalia, Goofy, Phil and Herc turned to the panting duck who was just getting over his little rage attack. Donald, noticing they were staring, lifted his head up and looked at all the scowling faces, hands on hips poses of his friends (and Amalia) and quacked innocently, "What?"

They all shock their heads, and Amalia muttered, "Jeez, ducky got some fire in that little body of his..."

"I heard that!" Donald growled. Amalia jumped behind Riku.

Phil and Hercules turned to the sight of all the people running crazily outside and sighed, "Well, I guess we should go clear _that_ up before anything else happens..." The satyr grumbled before making for the exit. Herc turned to bid the others goodbye, but never got the chance. Out of no where, about three dozen black spheres manifested themselves in the room, and groups of shadow Heartless crawled out, their inky bodies twitching at the sight of the Keybladers, wizard, knight, worrier and satyr. "Or not..." Phil concluded, backing up.

_...oh well, better late then never..._ Riku thought, summoning his weapon once again. Everyone soon followed drawing their own weapons of sorts, while the hero's trainer ran over to a fallen table for shelter so that he can coach Hercules (or yell insults and abrupt commands) safely.

Riku blocked a sudden attack from a nearby Heartless, the teeth of his blade colliding with the sharp claws of the creature created a strange chain like clang. Angry, the Heartless lunged at him at full speed,claws ready and yellow eyes intent on shredding him to bits.

The abruptness of the attack almost knocked Riku backward, but the teenager simply shook it off and sent a dark fire bolt of the Heartless – not killing it, but was enough to get it off of him.

A stinging on Riku's left forearm was all of a sudden making itself noticed, and one brief glance down let Riku know he had just been cut. A long gash from the claws of the creature almost from elbow to wrist, with blood beginning to drip out. Pushing his injury aside, Riku made to focus on the Heartless now and then worry about healing himself later.

Clasping his Keyblade with both hands Riku shot a thunder spell at the Heartless just as it was about to lunge at him again. The lightning split through the Heartless, knocking it to the ground, with a definite _**clap**_ a moment later. The Heartless lay dazed and twitching on the ground, not quite dead, but one last slash from head to toe from Riku finished it off. The heartless dissolved to mist with a small glowing pink orb at the corner of Riku's eye – whom had already turned to his next group of Heartless.

A multicoloured one slashed at Amalia, making her stagger back several paces. Frowning she jumped forward again and, thanking her impeccable balance, dodged almost all attacks while she tried to land one herself. Her keyblade finally reached it's target later, when the heartless lifted it's arm up to try and swipe her again, thus opening up the entire left half of it's body. Thanking her fast reflexes also Amalia planted her feet and swung as hard as she could.

The keyblade cut straight through the middle of the creature. There was a moment when the heartless, cut in two, simply hovered in mid air before finally spontaneously evaporated into a cloud of black and purple smoke.

Looking to her left Amalia saw four other shadowy creatures advancing on her.

Whilst trying to figure out which to attack first, Amalia spun her keyblade fast high above her head, sending a shock-wave of air on all four. After shaking it off, one heartless swiped at her feet. Amalia quickly jumped, but not before it skinned her ankle.

Another targeted her head and Amalia was back on the ground, and hitting the dirt. Getting an idea, she spun her keyblade the get a getter hold on it. This was a tricky move to master, but if you do it enough times (as she) it gets easier. Kicking her feet out from under her, Amalia used her arms to spin her body in a circle on the floor, whilst her feet hit all the Heartless surrounding her, before jumping back to her feet. Then, simply letting her arm swing on its own, her keyblade sliced through all four heartless effortlessly.

Donald and Goofy were working as a tag team. Donald, whilst sending individual spells on numerous heartless, would also stop to bounce spells off of Goofy's shield, thus creating a larger and stronger impact. When Donald wasn't sending spells at him, Goofy would be stampeding through a group of Heartless, only stopping to through his shield like a Frisbee at individual ones.

Sometimes, if he got the right angle and trajectory, his shield would magically act as a sort of boomerang, flying through the air and slicing a number of Heartless before safely returning to him. Then they would team up with Hercules – who was being loudly coached by Phil, in the side lines.

After what seemed like twenty minuted of fighting, the five were getting nowhere. All of them were backed into the middle of the battle field.

"Ok, this is crazy," Riku panted. He now had a small cut above his eye.

"They're multiplying!" Donald quacked, slightly swaying on his feet.

"Where are they all coming from?" Goofy wondered out loud. There were beads of sweat on his forehead.

"Isn't there some sort of _Drive_ we could use?" Hercules suggested. His muscles were tensed up and he was also panting.

"No, but there is one last minute – panic thing we could do..." Amalia said. She actually seemed...pretty healthy. Besides the cut on her shoulder and leg. She bit her lip and stepped forward, "Leave it to me."

Spinning her keyblade out in front of her, so fast that it was only a blue blur, a faint glow began to illuminate around the edge. Finally, Amalia thrust the blade up in the air above her head and shouted, "_Project_!". Suddenly, a ringing sound was echoing through the hall. It was obvious the Heartless didn't like what ever sound she was projecting because the creatures of all shapes and sized clutched their heads in agony; their bodies twitching and emitting a sort of silent scream.

Then, just like that, each Heartless in the room began to dissolve one by one until all that was left were faint black clouds and pink and red hearts floating toward Kingdom Hearts. Amalia dropped her Keyblade with a satisfied smile. The ringing stopped.

Everyone just sort of stood there stunned for a moment, mouths handing agape, before Donald broke the silence.

"W-what...was _that_?"

"A sound spell, wizard." Amalia informed, placing a hand on her hip. "Don't look at me like that. It exists. It _is_ an element, after all. Over the years I've found that Heartless don't like any sound or music whatsoever, so..." She shrugged.

A million thoughts and responses were racing through all of their minds (and Phil, who had just re-joined the group) but Riku managed to sum all of it up in one single word,

"Wow."

Amalia smiled in return. Donald was about to ask another question when –

_**Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. **_

Amalia yelped slightly when someone pulled on her arm, tugging her backward so fast she was almost knocked to the ground. Donald, Goofy, Riku, Phil and Hercules turned around to see three people. The man that was clapping was a middle aged, balding man who was a couple pounds over weight, and who seemed to be the leader. Next to him was a tall, skinny man and the one who had a hold of Amalia was a block-headed burly man.

The leader stepped forward. "Excellent!" he exclaimed. "Brilliant! Oh, what a show!" He turned toward Amalia, who was now grunting while trying to wiggle out of the goon's hold. "I never would have known there was that much power in that little body of yours, sweetheart. You should have told me."

"Bite me!" She snarled.

Boss pretended to flinch. He turned toward the five males with a grin on his face. "Wild one, isn't she?" He was only answered with glares. Boss laughed and stepped closer. "I don't believe I have ever seen you three-" he motioned to Donald, Goofy, and Riku "-around before..." He then turned his attention to Riku, who still had his keyblade summoned. "Oh, a Keyblade bearer! Tell me," Boss paused to reach into the pocket of his long jacket, "are you familiar at all with this boy?"

Much to everyone's horror, he pulled out the poster of Sora. Nobody answered. Boss and Riku stood there for some moments, staring at each other. Then, calmly, Riku raised his blade to point it at Boss.

"Let-" he inclined his head toward Amalia "-her go."

Boss paused for a moment, simply studying Riku, before slipping the Wanted Poster back into his jacket. With one subtle wave of his hand, both Georgie and the thug pulled long, thick swords out of their belts. Georgie poised it at the group, while the thug slid it in front of Amalia's throat. Amalia gasped and leaned away from the weapon. She knew that the second she summoned her keyblade she'd be dead.

"I don' think I can do tha'," Boss said, finally dropping his cheerful demeanour. Suddenly Amalia cried out in pain. Riku looked over to her at once, breaking his gaze with Boss. She had been turned around so that her arm was in full view. There was a large purple bruise on her arm. One way it travelled horizontally from her shoulder to the side of her clavicle, and the other way went down all the way to her elbow.

It was big and looked painful and made Riku's blood boil. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before. No wonder Amalia reacted the way she did when Riku grabbed her.

The silver haired keyblader pointed his blade at Boss again, this time the point emitting an orange glow. _...I don't care how annoying she is, no one should treat a girl like that..._

"I said_ let her go!_" Riku growled, voice full of fury. He couldn't remember the last time he ever felt this angry. Riku surprised everyone, including himself.

Boss looked like he was about to order his two goons to attack when another voice entered the room, coming out of no where.

"No no, Eugene. The kid's right. Let the little girl go."

It was enough to make everyone jump. All eyes in the room turned to see none other then the Lord of the Underworld himself, blue flaming hair and all.

"Hades!" Donald and Goofy snarled.

"Hey, would you look who it is: the two wash outs!" Hades cried with fake enthusiasm.

"Who you callin' _washouts_?" Goofy growled.

"Yeah," Donald cut in. "We beat you easily last year!"

Hades grumbled, "Details." He looked around. "Where's the kid?" Nobody wanted to answer his question. After a moment Hades shrugged, eyes on Riku, "Oh well, fresh meat. I would have thought you three – meaning you two and spike – were like the power trio – three musketeers, or whatever. One goes down and we all go down and all that _blah! _But hey, I love meeting new people, learning new names, making new friends – and _why_ is that buffoon still holding the little lady captive?"

Hades' sudden exclamation caused Boss to jump. He didn't seem so high an powerful now. Trying to keep his voice tough, Boss turned to the big thug who was holding Amalia and growled, "Release her!"

He tossed her forward in one jerky movement. Amalia turned around briefly to give them all one last death glare before going to stand next to Riku.

Hades threw his arms in the air as if he were expecting a hug. "Mali, baby! How's it shaking?"

"Hades." Amalia responded in an emotionless voice, smoothing out her dress.

Hades smiled thinly, then, noticing that the three men were still around, turned and shouted, "What are you still doing here? The little lady is no longer in your survives. Leave."

Georgie, the boss's right hand man, spluttered, "B-but you said – "

"Are you deaf? GO NOW!" Hades roared so loud his hair turned red. The three men ran from the ballroom. Hades calmed once they left. "You want a steed and get three mules." he muttered before turning to the group, "Me, I thought they'd never leave! Now, down to buis – "

"You have no place here, Hades!" Hercules suddenly shouted, cutting the Lord of the Underworld off.

"Oh, hey, Herc." He greeted, with a lot less enthusiasm. Hades sighed. "Sorry, no offence to you both-" he gestured toward Hercules and Phil "-but this is a more...privet meeting. Why don't we move to a more secluded spot?"

Without giving anyone the time to react properly, Hades snapped his fingers and vanished the next second. Along with Riku, Amalia, Donald and Goofy.

**Oooooooooooooooooo**

When they reappeared Riku, Donald and Goofy found themselves in the same meadow as they first met Amalia this morning. Riku scanned his surroundings in search for her when suddenly she appeared. Hades now had hold of her. Amalia ponded him with her free arm in fertile attempts to free herself.

"Hades let _go _of me!" She yelled, but the giant form of the Lord of the Underworld looked like he wasn't even feeling her punching him senseless.

"Hey, hey, hey. Where's the love?" he said, acting hurt. "Anyway, as I was saying before so rudely uninterrupted, down to – "

"Let her go!" Riku, Donald and Goofy shouted, together this time.

"Again!" Hades said, throwing his arms up in exasperation, "What is it with youth these days?"

All three summoned their weapons and pointed them at Hades.

"Ugh, really? All I wanted was a civil conversation – is that to much to ask?" No one answered, just continued to glare at Hades. "Fine." He sighed. "You want her, you can have her. But not before we talk. Really! Scouts honour." He raised his right hand.

They all figured this bargaining was good enough for now and stepped out of their battle stances, but not disposing their weapons.

"Now, you three have known her for what? A day? Then I'm guessing that all you know about her is her name – Now, let me finish before you decide if you still want her – her name and that she has a keyblade and is a Siren right? Well, here's the whole story – wait. Why don't you tell them, sweet cheeks? Go on, don't be shy!"

Hades pushed Amalia forward slightly, but not letting go of her. "Come on, tell us about your heritage."

Amalia took a deep breath, then, hesitantly, began to speak. "I wasn't always a siren..."

"Louder!"

"I wasn't always a siren!" She almost screamed. "A few years back, my home was invaded. People were killed and my town was destroyed. The ones who survived fled by next day break. But..." She paused. "Before my family and I could leave a...woman came into our home. She killed my parents, but took me and my sister." Amalia cut off, and Riku could just see the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

"I don't know what happened to my sister, don't know whether she's still alive or not, but the woman kept me. She was a sorceress and she put this sort of spell of me. I had no idea what she did to me until the next day. She threw me out into the worlds, on my own. Scared and alone. The next week I found out that she's turned me into a... a monster."

"That's enough..." Riku began to say, but Hades ignored him.

"Tell us what happened once you found out what you were."

"I... I – " Her voice broke.

"You killed someone, didn't you, Mali?"

Amalia stared at Hades with so much hate it was a wonder to the three you couldn't see flames in her eyes. "Yes," She hissed, "I killed someone. And then I found _you_, Hades."

"I'll continue on from here," Hades announced happily. "This little brat came to me asking if I could take the spell away. I could, and I agreed to. But only if she'd do some work for me. She agreed to in the beginning but came to me weeks later saying she wanted out. Said she would learn to _control_ the curse. Yeah," he scoffed, "good luck there, kid. Of course, level headed man that I am, I agreed to only release her if someone else would willingly take her knowing perfectly well her back story."

Riku saw Amalia blink some tears away. "Now, omegas, I'll ask you again. You still want this girl? You know how dangerous it is to be travelling with a siren? Especially in Broken Kingdom?"

They heard Amalia gasp slightly. Hades reached over to clasp her other hand and pulled off her glove, holding her palm up. There, occupying most of her palm, was the exact symbol that was on Riku, Donald and Goofy's. Riku stared down at his own hand and Amalia put two and two together.

"You too?" She whispered in a strange tone.

"So, now that you know the truth about Miss Amalia Ravenhart here – that's her name, by the way – the question is, do you still wish to take the little siren with you?" Riku, Donald and Goofy all looked at each other. There was no question about it. Disposing of his keyblade Riku stepped forward and, without saying a word, held out a hand to her. The look on both Hades' and Amalia's faces was pure and utter shock.

"I am a man of my word..." He muttered. "Fine, take her." Hades pushed Amalia forward so hard and fast that she had to throw her arms around Riku's neck to prevent from falling. "I wish you four good luck."

With a snap of his fingers a funny feeling washed over Amalia before Hades disappeared from thin air.

He'd released his bind to her.

All four simply stood there for some moments, not knowing what to do or say. Suddenly both Riku and Amalia realised they were still holding on to each other and moved away awkwardly.

"So," Riku cleared his throat. "_Ravenhart_?"

"Shut up," She murmured half-heartedly before moving to sit on a nearby bolder. "So, now the question is; why did you choose to free me?" She asked in a sassy voice. The attitude they first met was back.

Donald and Goofy, first exchanging a glance, stepped forward. "The king of Disney castle sent us to find you." Donald explained.

"Really?" She leant back and crossed her legs, suddenly interested. "Why?"

"Are you aware of someone called the Twilight Prince?" Goofy asked.

Much to their surprise, she nodded slowly. "The Prince of Twilight? Yeah, I have. He was in the bedtime stories my mom used to tell me when I was a kid."

They all shared another glance before Riku said, "He actually exists, and we need you to help us find him."

Amalia stifled a laugh, "Seriously?" Then she realised that they were. "Really? But...no, he's just a character in a children's story. An ancient myth, and legend. Nothing else...can't actually... _What_?"

"I know this is a lot to take in," Riku said. "Try _not_ knowing the story and being told all this."

Amalia shook her head unbelievably. "You guys are serious?"

Donald and Goofy pointed to a little silver mouse emblem on their clothes. "This is the seal of Disney Castle,"

"Yeah, yeah, I know what it is. Just give me a minute..." After a while she spoke again. "Alright. I'll go with you." Donald and Goofy beamed, but Amalia cut them off before they could say anything in response to that. "But, I just have one condition."

Riku looked at the other two anxiously. "Ok?"

"I don't want to know the reason that I'm needed on whatever mission of yours this is." Riku, Donald and Goofy were all taken aback by this condition.

After a few moments of confusion, they all said, "_Alright_..."

Suddenly, something occurred to Riku. "Hey, Amalia?"

"Yes?"

"I just have one question about this symbol on our hands," He held his palm up.

"You might want to keep that covered, all of you." Amalia quickly informed. "That's why I have this glove."

"Ok. But, what _is_ it?"

"Oh, why it's the seal of Broken Kingdom." She was greeted by blank faces. "Basically just the emblem of Mellinnium with a big cross through it." Again, blank stares. She sighed with exasperation. "Honestly, what century are you from? Anyone who is bound to Broken Kingdom gets this symbol imprinted onto their left palm."

"Wait," Riku cut in. "Bound?"

"Yes..." Amalia stared at them strangely. A thought then occurred to her. "Wait, exactly how long ago did you wake up in Broken Kingdom?"

They all shared a glance. Was it just yesterday?

Goofy shifted his weight. "Um...yesterday."

"Yest – " Amalia broke off, clamping a hand over her mouth, eyes wide with shock. "Oh my God..." She breathed through her hand.

"What?" Donald quacked. "What is it?"

Amalia shook her head. "No...too soon...I shouldn't say...better to find out for yourselves..." She muttered. Riku stepped forward and knelt down next to her.

"Amalia?" She didn't look a him. "How exactly does one get..._bound_...to Broken Kingdom?"

She dropped her hand but still didn't say anything. She could feel Riku's eyes burning holes in the side of her head. Then, finally, she took and deep breath.

"You die."

**

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**

Hello! I think this wait was a lot shorter. I think. I can't be bothered to check. Wow, chapter 28! Almost to 30!

**Next chapter will be back with Sora and the gang. Now, I'm not exactly sure if all of you will know the next world. It's not from a Disney movie. Of well, we'll have to wait and see! **

**The next set of worlds from here on will be a mixture of Disney and non-Disney movies/shows. (Actually, I haven't decided on shows yet). **

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**Please review. **

**Oooo**

**o o **

**o**


	29. Games

**Hello! **

**So, here's the next chappie! Once again THANK YOU ALL SOOO MUCH for each and every review you've given me! Means a lot! ^-^**

**Word of warning: the beginning of this chapter might be a little gruesome.**

**Disclaimer stands **

**Enjoy! **

_Chapter 29: Games_

* * *

A soft wind blew around a field as someone opened their eyes to squint up at the bright sunlight above. Reflexively moving a hand to shield the rays, Sora pushed himself off of the prickly grass he lay on. Once to his feet Sora took the time to examine his surroundings. He was in some sort of meadow, with long green grass to his knees and tall, old oaks stood proud in a great circle. Wild flowers littered the rounds and if he listened closely, Sora could just make out the distinct trickle of a flowing river.

Where was he? Sora had no idea. But the very vision in front of him was enough to consume his mind all together, quickly forgetting to be suspicious of the foreign place.

Birds sang in the trees and cloudless blue sky overhead as Sora began to walk. Into the trees he went, the scene almost immediately switching from blinding sunlight to midnight. Still he walked on, lacing around threes and bushes, jumping over hollow logs, roots and boulders when needed to.

A feverish feeling deep in his core made Sora feel as there were something hidden in these woods that he needed to find. Fast. Sora broke into a run, almost tripping as he sprinted around the foliage. He found the river, but did not give it a second glace, jumping straight into the stream and continuing his stampede through the magnificent Forest. Sora's eye caught the faintest pale light shining through the leaves up ahead and made straight for it, really tripping over this time.

Only a matter of seconds now. Ten feet away ... five … four … three … two … one –

At long last Sora burst through the trees, heart hammering, breath coming in short gasps and beads of sweat forming above his brow. Then his eyes landed upon the site before him. What should be an old little beach house, modelled in an 80s fashion, sat in the middle of a much larger sea of long grass and over grown trees. Then, Sora suddenly realised what this house was.

His.

It was his home from Destiny Islands, except it looked like it had aged a couple decades without anyone looking after it or even living in it, with large wood chips and pealing sun-bleached paint. Walking this time Sora trekked up to his house cautiously, as if one little slip would make the house dissolve to dust in the wind. Finally he reached the broken steps, jumped them, and moved to the door. To his right was the porch swing he remembers his parents sitting on, staring at the sea rolling waves onto the white sand together. The same one that was hardly ever touched by anyone but him after his father died. To his left were his mother's pot plants, once filled with life and vibrant colours, now only filled with dirt.

Pushing these thoughts out of his mind Sora very carefully twisted the door handle and opened it wide. What greeted him was an empty house, filled with nothing but air, dust and cobwebs. Sora's breath caught. He'd never seen anything so...so empty.

"Mom?" He called. No one answered. "Mom!" He called again. Still nothing. Sora ran down the house: in through the kitchen, dining room, bathrooms. Then he ran up the stairs, almost falling through a broken step, and searched all three bedrooms for his mother and little cousin. Still nothing. Sora backed up against the wall and slid down, and started to freak out. Where the _hell_ is he? Why is his home empty and falling to bits? And where was his family?

"_Roxas?_" He tried, but the voice that answered back was not Roxas', but one he did not recognise. It was soft and silky and scared the heck out of him.

"_In the living room..." _It said.

Sora jumped up from the floor, practically flew down the stairs and gunned it into the living room. Then he stopped dead, falling backwards, a silent scream caught in his throat. There, lying on the floor with mangled limbs, was his mother, Poppy and Roxas, the floorboards painted with their blood. All their eyes and mouths were open, faces stricken with terror. Sora shut his eyes tight and crawled backwards on the floor until he hit a wall. Then, getting up he ran down the hall and once finding the door that led to the basement, yanked it open and slammed it shut behind him.

When he tried to turn something caught his foot and Sora tumbled down the stairs. He landed on the stone floor hard and painfully. His back and arm was aching, with blood beginning to trickle out of his shoulder, and his head was pounding and ringing.

But he could still smell the blood. Rolling over Sora emptied his stomach of all contents. Tears were beginning to spill from his eyes, and an ache more painful then that caused by the fall was stabbing at his heart. He had just seen his family dead on the floor, every inch of their ice cold, blue skin stained with that horrific scarlet, fleshed ripped and shred, some limbs dismembered from the rest of them...

Sora threw up again before crawling over to the tap sticking out of the concrete and splashed water all over his face and hair. He didn't turn it off, but let it run at full blast, water rushing out of the faucet, drenching his clothes and beginning to flood the basement. Actually, Sora was privily hoping it would flood, and then he could just fall away...

The young keyblader's eyes snapped open at the sound of a strange cracking. Even with the roar of the rushing water his heightened senses built from years of fighting Heartless and Nobodies picked it up, clear as day. Sora slowly turned his head, heart pounding. He wasn't breathing either. And once he turned around, what greeted him was the biggest Shadow Heartless he had ever seen. It was tall, bigger then him, with long sharp claws and pulsing yellow eyes. There was also this distinct shape it had that made Sora's blood curl. It's thin back was arching and the spikes on its head were swaying slightly...

Anti-Sora.

Sora backed away and he almost shouted at it before he realised the murderous thing probably couldn't understand him. Suddenly the thing raised its claws up in the air and swiped them at Sora, who managed to hit the floor just in time to avoid his head being removed from his shoulders. Sora shot back up and thrust a hand out in front of him for his Keyblade.

Nothing happened.

"What?" Sora gasped to himself and tried again. The same result. He felt nothing, not the familiar current of electricity shoot up his arm just before his Keyblade would usually appear, not the sudden weight he became used to once the blade actually appeared. Nothing. In front of him the monster shook as if laughing at Sora before lifting its arm to the air again. With his fast reflexes, Sora ducked under its am before he got cut, through it did manage to swipe the fabric of his shirt, and ran over to the stairs.

Just as Sora was halfway up something got hold of his ankle and pulled him to the wood, crying out in pain when his chest and chin collided with the hard planks. Shaking it off Sora pushed up from the stairs and flipped his body around, free leg smashing into the side of Anti-Sora's head. The creature looked startled for a moment, hitting the wall next to them before pouncing on Sora again. Sora grabbed the railing and managed to rip one of the bars free, using that as a make shift weapon. Sora swung with all his strength at the Heartless, missing twice before it finally hit home.

The Heartless slid a few steps down and Sora, taking advantage of the momentary distraction, pushed himself forward and plunged the wood straight into its chest. Sora made sure not to let go of his weapon when the Heartless fell back. The stake ripped out of his darker self's chest as it tumbled back down to the ground. Sora had no time to sit still so he pushed himself back up and tried running. Something grabbed the back of his neck this time when Sora reached the door and threw him back down. Sora hissed in pain when the stake he was holding pierced through his skin from the impact.

Lifting his head up, Sora saw the great dark creature staring maliciously at him, his vision slightly blurred and doubled, and began to lunge forward. Sora flattened himself against the stairs to avoid the blow. It worked but the Heartless managed to cut his stomach a bit. Sora hissed in pain and jumped back up, only to, again, be pulled back down. He was getting angry now, but the monster had him pinned. Anti-Sora yanked once again on his ankle and he grabbed hold of a loose floor board to try and save himself from being dragged back down to the floor, which was now knee deep in rushing water.

The Heartless gave another pull and the step snapped off in Sora's hand. A nail that was sticking out of the wood due to their struggle caught Sora's forearm, and as he was yanked down, cut a huge gash from elbow to wrist. Sora screamed in pain as his flesh tore right open, blood gushing out of his arm. The monster tossed Sora up in the air and pinned him downs so that they were now face to face. Sora didn't even know Heartless' _could_ grin before he saw it for himself. But the monster did – stretching its mouth wide, the inside like a black hole. Anti-Sora lifted its long claws up in the air, slowly and tauntingly and for one sick, heart-wrenching moment let it hover there in the air. Then, suddenly, swung down as fast and as hard as it could sliced Sora from forehead, over his eye and to his mouth.

Sora screamed at the pain and made to cover his face with his arms before he realised the monster was pinning them, cutting into his wrists. Sora was blind once again. Sora's leg tore open from knee to ankle before he even had time to end that scream and start another. The same happened with the other leg moments later. Sora was positive he had never felt pain like any other in his life.

The Heartless, growling with malice, grabbed Sora around the middle and threw him to the bottom of the stairs. Sora tumbled down and fell straight into the water. Sora spluttered and lashed in the water, trying force his impaled legs to keep him above. Covering his wound Sora looked around with one eye for _something_ – a last, desperate attempt to save his life. Being half blind and crippled was still better then death, right? And this thing killed his family!

Then he spotted it. The tap. Running as fast as the now weight deep water and his injuries would allow (so it was more of a strange dog paddle) Sora made his way over to the pipe and, using all the strength he had left in him, heaved at the pipe. It didn't budge. Sora tried again. The Heartless was just standing there, watching him. He pulled a third time. Blood from his wrists were leaking onto the tap, causing his hands to slip. Sora took a deep breath and, tightening his hold, gave one final heave.

The pipe snapped free, a fountain of water burst from the ground. Wasting no time whatsoever Sora spun back around, his arms swinging with the pipe and smashed it right into the side of Anti-Sora's head. The impact was so great that the creature fell into the water. This time it was Sora's turn to pounce on it. Sora's legs collided with the Heartless and pushed it under water. With blurred vision and the entire room spinning, Sora plunged the pipe into his darker self's body.

Sora stood there for a moment, and when the last amount of strength left his body, he fell backward into the water. Sora's eyes closed and he drifted down into the water until his back hit something that may have been the floor. His limbs didn't work any more, but neither did they hurt, so that was ok. Sora felt calm for once and he tried to forget what he'd just been through, what he'd witnessed before hand...

Then, suddenly, Sora heard this strange hissing sound echo around his head. He peaked under his lashes just enough to make out a distinct hooded figure with a tall staff and long grey hands.

The Unnamed One.

Then he heard words, muffled by the water but reached his ears nonetheless. "_Wow. I must say I am impressed... Your will to survive is astonishing for one so..._ _Ugh, Sora, you look terrible. Not such a pretty boy any more, are you? ...Well... I'm sorry to say, but _I _control this dream... Let us see you fight _this_..._"

The staff was plunged through his chest.

**Oooooooooooooooooo**

"What's wrong with him?" Kairi shrieked as Sora thrashed around on the ground and screamed at the top of his lungs. It sounded like the worst kind of cry of pain you could ever hear.

"Sounds like a nightmare!" Danniel answered, shouting over Sora as he pinned him to the ground, trying to restrain him. Sora's lashing had gotten so bad that Dan had no choice but to pull him out of the tent, earning himself a punch in the eye in the process.

"A nightmare can do _that_?" Kairi shrieked again, trying to release herself from Mia's hold. Mia had to evidently restrain Kairi so that she didn't do anything stupid – like run over to Sora's side and get herself hurt. No, it was best if Dan copped all the punches.

"If it's strong and vivid enough!" Dan shouted back. His knees were on his legs and he was trying to hold Sora's arms to the ground. "Sora, wake up!" He tried but Sora still stayed in his unconsciousness.

"Can't you do something?" Kairi cried, now with hysteria to her voice. Tears began to leak from her eyes.

"_I'm trying!_"

Mia wrapped her arms around Kairi and retreated slightly, feeling Kairi flinch at Dan's roar. She was trying to comfort Kairi and hold her back at the same time. Seeing the tears on the Princess of Heart's face Mia moved in front of her. Being slightly taller then Kairi was an advantage right now, because Mia guessed the best thing she could do right now was to simply block her view. Although she couldn't do anything about the noise. "Shh, it's ok, it's ok. He's gonna be fine." Mia whispered soothingly, taking Kairi's head in her hands and forcing her to look at her.

_Smack! _

Mia shot back around, horrified at the the fact that Dan had just slapped Sora across the face. "That is _not_ going to help, Danniel!" She finally cracked and shouted at him.

"Yes it is, look!" Dan said. "He just sort of opened his eyes!" Sora's eyes did in fact flutter open for a fraction of a second, but he was still trapped in his nightmarish phase. His eyes were still squinted shut and his fists were clenched so hard that his knuckles had turned white and blood began to drip from his palms.

Dan tried a softer approach, "Sora ... Hey, Sora, you need to wake up." His voice had turned that same silky tone he use when trying to compel someone. To the guardian's great relief it had started to work. Sora had stopped flailing, kicking and screaming and trying to beat Dan to a pulp. Sora was now groaning in pain and Dan noticed a tear leak down his temple.

"Sora, come on, wake up." He stirred and hissed. "It's me, it's only me. Come on, kid. Wake up ..."

Sora grind his teeth and his back arched with pain. With one final shout he shot up from the ground, almost head-butting Dan if he had not quickly jumped to the side. A sudden roar sounded from behind them and the three turned to see a nearby tree light up in bright orange flames. Sora's eyes were wide in shock and another tear leaked from his eye without him realising it.

Kairi, jumping into action, summoned her keyblade and pointed it at the burning tree. A fountain of water shot out of the point and surrounded the tree, extinguishing the flames much faster then ordinary. For reasons unknown to Mia, Kairi and Dan this simple act seemed to spook Sora more then anything, and the boy jumped up from the ground and backed himself into a tree.

Kairi spun around and cautiously approached him, "Sora?"

"What's going on?" He gasped, hysteria present in his voice. It was safe to say that Sora thought he was still in the world of nightmares.

Dan held his hands up in a sort of surrender pose, moving slowly over to Sora. "Hey, kid, it's ok. It was just a nightmare...well, not _just_ a nightmare. That was certainly something... Ok I'm not really sure _what_ that was … and I'm not helping." Dan stopped. He hated it how he would always ramble when he's nervous or there is a delicate situation at hand.

"S-stay away from me!" Sora shouted, pushing himself further into the tree.

Mia approached slowly, keeping her step light and making sure not to break any sticks on the ground. She spoke in a calm and soothing voice, "Sora, it's ok. You're safe. It was just a dream."

But Sora didn't seem to be listening, or rather, _want_ to listen. He had shut his eyes tight and was shaking his head from side to side. "No," He was whispering.

"Sora, please," Kairi tried. "It's me – It's Kairi."

"No..." _Empty field … dead bodies … monster … rushing water … pain – _

Sora suddenly hissed, the excruciating feeling of being stabbed through the chest crashing into him at full force. The flames threatened to re-appear. He couldn't breathe.

"Sora ..."

"Did I do that?" He coughed out, eyes wide and intent upon the smoking black oak. He did that. _I did that_. Dammit. What if he had gotten someone – Mia or Kairi or Dan – instead of the poor defenceless tree?

What was _wrong_ with him? His powers had been all over the place and he could barely summon his keyblade without strain as of late. And the one time that he manages to summon it easily it was not of him own accord and he almost kills somebody!

He was a danger to them all.

So without saying a word, without looking anyone in the eye and without looking back, Sora ran. Ran deep into the dark forest full of Heartless and Nobodies and Ghosts without a set destination or plan besides simply to get as far away from anyone he could hurt as possible. He heard them shouting after him but he didn't try to listen to what they were saying. Probably "good riddance".

Leaping over various obstacles and cutting a gash across his shin once Sora didn't stop until he smashed head first into something hard, almost toppling backwards. At first he was splashed with confusion, but a second later he knew perfectly well what he ran into.

A door. A door leading to some foreign world. It would probably be a dangerous one, too. Sora closed his eyes and took a deep breath. _Get away …_

Feeling for the door knobs, he waisted a good amount of time searching for them in the pitch black before finally realising there weren't any. So, pushing hard on the heavy metal, the doors swung open, the familiar golden, beautiful light greeting him. Sora didn't wait for the light to compel him before he dived.

Falling. Floating. Spinning, then falling again.

Sora landed awkwardly on all fours on a hard, rocky terrain. The world below momentarily spun before coming to an abrupt stop that almost knocked him over. A slam, and then a magical bell-like sound let Sora know that the door had just disappeared as he crouched there waiting for the nausea to leave him.

But it didn't stop, but continued to swell up in his chest, lingering there like an illness before beginning to grow. Beads of sweat were now forming atop his brow and he fell into an uneven hyperventilation. After a while the nausea crept up from his chest like a big fat slug and attacked his head full-on; a burning sensation replacing it in his chest. His throat was beginning to hurt and his skin felt like it were growing blisters.

Then he realised...

"Wrong form – " Sora gasped. "I'm in the wrong form!"

In some worlds it were crucial for the visitor to change their form to be able to fit in better or survive on the new planet. But for some reason it didn't happen this time. Sora got his answer then,

"That would be of my doing." A slither of a voice whispered, and Sora peered up through his lashes to see the foggy outline of a white and blue cloak. Two emotions overcame Sora at that moment. The first was the burning (no pun intended) desire to slash the figure in two, and the other was to vomit at the sight of it.

He did neither, though the latter felt like it were about to come true.

The Unnamed One knelt down in front of Sora, waving his staff over his head. "This is a lesson, young one. A lesson to teach you the consequences of testing me. For contradicting me. For crossing me."

Sora wanted to spit that he and his friends never asked for any of this to happen, that it was _him_ who pulled them into this mess, but his throat was so tight all he could do was pant.

"So let this be a warning to you, _Sora,_" Sora hated how his name sounded with that monsters voice so much it was almost shocking to him, "you _will_ pay. I know what you are, young one. You are the heroic type. The noble, honest, _courageous_ type. You place the value of others' lives above your own. So I just want to make this loud and clear …" He stretched out a grey, skeletal hand and seized the front of Sora's shirt, choking him more. "If anything like that happens again – if you think you're better than me, more powerful than me – _stronger than me_ – then the ones you care about really will turn up in a bloody tangled mess at your feet."

He let him go and Sora collapsed fully onto the ground.

"This is not your battle field, Sora. It is _mine_."

Sora tasted dirt and clenched his fist, collecting dust under his finger nails. Then everything went blank. The Unnamed One waved his staff over Sora's still body once, and watched as a gentle blue light too calm and pretty for the current situation began to engulf him.

"Let the games begin."

**Oooooooooooooooooo**

"Which way did he go?"

"Not sure but I think it was this w – " Dan broke off on the account of slamming face first into a large metal object. The force of the impact sent the guardian crashing to the ground at Kairi and Mia's feet. "OW! God dammit!" was amongst the many things that streamed out of his mouth.

Mia _tsk_ed. One of these days she really needed to have a conversation with Dan about his language. _She_ was used to it, but she felt like he was corrupting Kairi and Sora!

"Could one of you Light faeries flip a switch or something?" Dan growled one he regained his footing. He heard Kairi mutter a spell before a soft warm light lit up a ten meter radius, and they could now all see that they were standing in some sort of clearing – if you could call it that.

The ground beneath them was all dirt, mud and rocks. It looked as if someone had gone and sprayed a circle of grass and then set off a could mine bombs for good measure. A great bronze door stood erected in the middle of the "clearing", the picture imprinted upon it the same as their surroundings.

"You think Sora ran in there?" Kairi asked. Her voice was shaky, but no one commented.

"I'd say it's a good shot," Mia responded, pointing to a spot near the dirt, "Look." carved into the dirt was the pattern of Sora's shoes.

Around them was silent. It wasn't eerie and it wasn't even scary. It was just an on going silence. Dan examined the door for a moment before speaking, "I'm guessing Sora didn't think to stop and think about weather or not he should go through this door. I mean look at the name!" He cried in exasperation, pointing up to a termite eaten sign.

The words "Empty Lands" were carved carelessly.

"Out of all the freaking doors in this place the first one he manages to find leads to a world called _Empty Lands._ He may as well have roamed around in the dark till he found a Ghost and tried to make friends with it!"

Mia and Kairi frowned at the door with fear as Dan's eye caught something. "Look, right over there. Another world!" He ran close enough until he could read the sign. "_Godric's Hollow. _He couldn't have ran into that one? Sure it sounds a bit eerie, but it gives off a much better vibe then _Empty Lands_." Dan stopped talking when he realised the two girls weren't listening.

Kairi looked as if she were battling some internal struggle before approaching the door. "We're going in after Sora!" She announced and began to push on the door.

Mia agreed and moved forward to assist Kairi. The doors swung open and Dan watched the brilliant light shine upon their faces.

He sighed. "Yeah … Let's go save the suicidal idiot."

With the light just beginning to compel them, Kairi, Mia and Dan walked in still half concious.

* * *

**Yeash, that took longer then it was supposed to. But don't kill me please, I had a HUGE assignment for school I needed to do! ****Year 11...**

**Next chapter will be the new world. Any ideas or guesses on what it might be? Hmm?**

**Yeah, I just couldn't help but put that _Harry Potter_ reference in that last part: I just finished reading the last book!**

**Hopefully I'll be able to get a new chapter in before I go back to school in about two weeks. **

**I have nothing else to say but Please Review.**

**PS: Thank you all so much for all of them, they really mean a lot to me! ^-^**

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	30. Then There Was 10

**I have nothing to say but my deepest apologies for this being so bloody damn late!**

**Enjoy!**

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Chapter 30: Then there was 10.

Sora awoke mirrored to the way he did two days upon arrival in Broken Kingdom. Only this time, nothing but a gasp of much needed intake of oxygen filled the silent chasm surrounding. Groaning as the events prior rushed back to him at an alarming rate, Sora almost jumped up from the ground to search for the evil old man whom has decided it is fun to torment and torture the sixteen-year-old.

Blinking several times and shaking his head once to clear it, Sora noticed that the lighting of the world he was in had now changed, and instead of early morning, the sky now resembled late afternoon – which leads to the question of exactly how long has he been lying there?

Sora sat there quietly in the dirt for a few minutes, and only when concluding that nothing was going to jump out of the alleys and attack he took the time to examine his surroundings.

The young Keyblader was currently in a chasm of some sort, its perimeter stretching on for miles it seemed, all of which only consisted of dirt and sand. With no building in sight. Or foliage. Strange. But what was stranger was that stacked up in pillars of unkempt piles were slabs and shreds of scrap metal twice the side of him, Riku _and_ Dan combined, Sora concluded, along with various other pipes, barrels and wood that looked like they once would have been glamorous furniture of parts of the walling for housing. Old trucks, cars and semi-trailers were also apart of this rusty grave yard, enlarged to twice their normal size and many boulders the height of Sora were scattered along the arid plane.

Then it hit him: Sora was lying in some sort of abandoned junk yard.

Cobwebs, rust and dust coated almost all surfaces, and broken glass lay at the feet of some of the vehicles. Groaning once more, Sora lifted his fists to rub his tired eyes … and cried out in shock.

Flinching backward into the dirt again, his heart pounding, he lifted his arm back up to inspect that he had only been seeing things. But he was greatly proven wrong, because his hand was not actually a hand: but a claw.

A metal claw. With hinges that squeaked when he balled his fist. A metal claw that was attacked to not skin, but a tanned canvas like material.

Shaking his head Sora got to his feet. _This isn't real, _he thought. _I'm only dreaming. _

Once standing, Sora looked down at his legs, and alas, they too here made of canvas and metal. Sora moved his shaky claw to touch the "skin" of his leg and was surprised when the metal of his fingertips could feel the rough texture of his leg. It was course, but made of finely woven tan and brown stitch, with a slight tear on his knee where days before the bone had pierced through …

Sora discarded that memory with a shudder.

Curious, Sora lifted a hand to his face. More stitch. Then his hair … metal. Sora frowned as he ran his fingers through his once spiky locks. They were still spikes but … metal? _And what is that? Is that straw?_

"_This is freaky, man." _A voice tickled the back of Sora's mind in a hushed, but urgent whisper. For a moment Sora had almost forgotten Roxas was back.

_You're telling me._

"_Can you find a mirror or something. I want to see what we look like."_

_Does it _look_ like there'd be a mirror in a junk yard? An unbroken one at least._

"_Look through the cars. Maybe there's a window still in-tacked."_

Sora nodded subconsciously and began walking through the yard, taking everything in once again. _Jack Skellington would _love_ this place … _

Finally he came across a car that showed a bit of promise, then – _Oh, no. That one has a broken window … and side view mirror._

"_Don't go near it! Seven years bad luck!"_ Despite the current situation Sora found himself having to suppress a laugh at that.

On he looked. And looked. And looked. It was like someone had purposely charged through here with a crow bar or giant bat and smashed all the windows. It seemed useless to be trudging through this place looking for an unbroken window. Sora thought it'd be more useful to be searching for any form of life, or even the door back to Broken Kingdom so that he can get the heck out of this creepy world.

A pang jabbed at his heart when he remembered how he had left things back on Broken Kingdom. He could see the worried and horror struck faces of his friends – and Dan's – faces when he stormed off from the camp-site into the woods. Their cries of alarm, shock and fear as they ran after him. Kairi screaming, crying, calling him to come back …

Sora sighed in shame. He really shouldn't have run off like that.

The Unnamed One shouldn't be torturing and killing him in his dreams for fun … Who wouldn't be freaked! Still …_ shouldn't have run off_.

Sora jumped in alarm. Those last few words weren't his own voice.

_I know, Roxas. I was just _so_ freaked out. When …_

"_I saw." _Images that Roxas conjured upof himself, Sora's mother and baby cousin lying mangled in a pool of blood on the floor of their living room made Sora want to slap himself.

_Stop it!_

Roxas flinched. "_I'm sorry. That wasn't on my own accord."_

_This is useless! _Sora groaned and kicked a pebble. Just as Roxas was coaxing him to check around the corner, Sora saw it. Right there, just peaking around the corner of a barrel was a little doll-like creature with large, binocular eyes. Sora stopped in his tracks, both him at the creature freezing. The keyblader narrowed his eyes in order to see clearer through the rapidly increasing darkness as the Sun was setting.

The little creature's form seemed to be illuminated with a dim yellow, candle like light coming from this weird lantern be held in his hand. Then Sora noticed it. It's entire body was covered in the same canvas as he was.

Curious as Sora was, he tilted is head to the side. The creature did the same. He took step forward, so did the doll. His keyblade flashed in his hand without his consent, the creature flinched and reclined back into the shadows.

_I didn't do that! _Sora stared started at the weapon in his hand that had magically appeared without him calling it. Then, the most amazing thing happened. The little doll creature stepped out of the shadows and approached Sora cautiously, it's arms up in the air in an "I mean you no harm" gesture.

What?

Then, it spoke. "It's alright. No need to be afraid – I'm a friend."

As Sora stared confusingly back at the doll, whom he concluded to be male, based on the voice, and sent his Keyblade away, with great difficulty. Strange …

"What?" Sora spoke. "I'm not afraid of you. I thought _you'd_ be afraid of – " He then broke off, only just noticing his voice. It sounded odd – mechanical and static-y. Not at all like the doll's, that sounded clear and … human. Sora's changed frequency and pitch every couple seconds, and sounded like an old radio switching between stations. Sora's hand flew to his throat. He cleared in and tried speaking again. Same result. "What's wrong with my voice?"

The doll placed a hand to his chin, one much like Sora's, and examined him from a distance. "Hmm," he hummed. "Your voice box seems to be damaged … here, let me take a look."

Before Sora could do anything, he had already moved over to him and pulled the zippier – _zippier_ – that ran down the entire length of his torso open. Sora cried out in shock as the the doll began digging around – _strangest world I've ever been on, strangest world I've ever been on_ – and had half a mind to whack his hand away.

"H-hey! W-w-what are y-you d-d-d-doing?"

The doll paid no attention, but his eyes were filled with nothing but the deepest curiosity. "Ah! There it is! Hmmm … Oh, no, not broken at all. You've just got some wires unplugged … this goes here … one here … here … Ah, there you are! Should be fine now. Try speaking?"

Sora gulped once, but obliged. He didn't want him to go digging around his … insides .. again. "Uhhh … f-friend?" He cleared his throat once more. "Friend?" That second time it sounded clear and perfect; back to normal!

The doll smiled. "Great!"

Sora examined the doll. It resembled strongly of the little dolls that a store back on Destiny Island sold every year on Halloween. Stitchpunks, they called them. Entire body made of stitch and patch work. This one had a bald head, with only one eye and a metal plate where the other should be. The eye resembled that of a wide binocular, and when he blinked the iris grew smaller and smaller until it it was shut completely, like a camera taking a picture.

He was about the same height of Sora, roughly, maybe a little taller, with the same claws for hands and bronze metal feet that ended in a point. Another difference between the two was that instead of a zippier, he had two buttons positioned on his chest and stomach. There were many stitches all over his body, like he had had to be re-sewn up many times. On his hip was a large rope with a fishing hook three-quarters the size of his leg, and over his shoulder he wore a pouch with what looked like life sized sewing needles.

Smiling friendlily, the Stitchpunk held out an arm. "Hello, friend. I wasn't aware there were any others, after 9 showed up the other day. But here you are! Name's 5. And you?"

Sora stared from between his face to his hand and was about to tell him that "5" wasn't a name, but a number. But, somehow feeling he could trust the little Stitchpunk, and deciding to take this weird world as it came, Sora shook his hand.

"I'm Sora. Nice to, er, meet you."

5 frowned. "So-_ra_? That is a strange name. Are you sure that's what it is? Well, I found you after 9 so I guess you'd be number 10, right? 10 does come after 9 and 9 was the latest created by the Scientist, up until _you_ of course. So how 'bout it, 10?"

For some reason, Sora found himself getting annoyed at the chatterbox. "I'm not a number. My name is _Sora_. And I'm not sure how I got here. And who the heck is the _Scientist_?"

The little Stitchpunk continued to frown, but only seemed to acknowledge the last part of Sora's speech. "The Scientist? You don't know who the Scientist is?" Sora shook his head. 5 went on, "The Scientist is our creator. Each one of us first wakes up in the house where he made us."

"_Are you sure this guy didn't loose a little more then just an eye?"_

_Shush!_

"But what do you mean he _made_ you?" Sora asked intrigued.

5 shrugged, "Just that. He made us. All of us. So therefore he is our creator. Mine, 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's, 6's, 7's, 8's and 9's. And obviously you too, Te – uh, Sora."

Sora shook his head. "No. No Scientist built me from scratch. And I didn't wake up in a house, but I woke up just" - Sora pointed over to the spot here he woke up - "over there."

5 seemed shocked above all to hear this, and stared at Sora with a wide eye. "You didn't wake up in the house? But where are you from?"

Sora didn't think 5 would know or understand the concept of other worlds, and Sora really didn't feel like explaining the whole story right now. "Um … far away."

"Amazing!" 5 gasped and, again, before Sora could utter another word 5 had rushed to his back and was holding his shoulders. "Very interesting …" he heard him mutter before he ran back to his front. 5 took Sora's hand and stared at his palm, running the points of his fingers over it. "Wow … look at this detail. Carved wood, steal bolts …" 5 dropped his hand and started poking Sora's hair. "Such care … moulded copper, metal."

5 then looked back up to Sora. "2 always said there'd be more …" 5 trailed off as his voice took on a low and sad tone. Shaking his head as if to clear it, the little Stitchpunk turned around to show Sora his back. And sure enough, painted on his entire back in black ink was the number 5. "See? 5. Yours just has a big letter S. S for Sora."

Sora shifted his weight. "5, I was meaning to ask. What … is this place?"

5 looked around him some more before answering. "These are the ruins. 2 said you could always find great treasures here if you know where to look ..."

"_Here?" _

"2?"

5 nodded, deep melancholy printed on his face. "2 was … is a friend. A best friend. The oldest of us, after 1. But the other day he had gone out in search for supplies that he could build something out of. He found 9. 9 was a little like you. He told me he woke up not knowing where he was, or even who he was. Didn't even have a voice! 2 had to dig one out for him in the ruins! But as he was bringing 9 to the rest of us … the Cat Beast attacked and carried 2 off over the emptiness."

"Emptiness?" Sora spoke softy, noticing how disgruntled 5 was about the loss of his friend.

5 nodded and pointed to the arid plane in which Sora was staring at when he woke up. "The emptiness. The abyss."

"Is … Do you know if he is still alive?"

5 took some time to answer, but finally said. "I have to believe he is. 9 does, also."

Suddenly both became aware of their surroundings. The Sun had officially set, and now all that lit their path was the light from 5's lantern. "It's dark. We should get going before anything like the Cat Beast shows up. Although, judging by that knife thing that appeared in your hand you could probably take it. I couldn't, though. Not after what happened to 2."

5 led Sora on through the junk yard and around a corner, through a passage, under a truck and around another corner. Now Sora could really see this world for all its glory. The entire place looked like a ghost town been killed three times over. Abandoned cars lay stranded and broken in the streets, shops and houses were blown either to bits or just about and pieces of old newspaper littered the streets. Some houses, the lucky ones, were still barely standing, but that was mostly on the account of they had something to keep them wedged, like a piece of another house, or they somehow managed to stand on a couple pilers of brick or wood.

"That's the house I was talking about." 5's voice broke through the silence and tore Sora's eyes away from the sad scene, to an even worse off one. The house 5 was referring to had only the top story remaining, the pilers of wood and stairs the only thing keeping it in the air. Windows were broken, shutters were drawn, and what was worse was that it looked like this house had been literally used for shooting or bombing practice. Or both.

For a moment 5's lantern shined on a stray piece of newspaper, or flier, Sora wasn't sure, but it was long enough for him to read the headline. The word REVOLT! was written in thick, bold lettering, with a picture of a man frantically trying to outrun a machine of some sort.

Sora fought to suppress a shudder. _Looks like there was a war of some kind. And the humans lost … we were all wiped out from this world … _

"5? Do you know what happened here?" Sora thought to ask.

5 shook his head. "No. Not really. Just a was against the machines, ones much like the Cat Beast. I woke up during it's climax, and none of us really know how, why or what caused the machines to try and take over. Not even 1."

"1 is your leader, I'm guessing."

5 nodded and smiled slightly. "You guessed right. Do you have a leader?"

Sora thought of King Mickey. "Er, sort of." Guessing 5 was going to ask, Sora changed the subject. "Exactly how far away is this … wherever we're going?"

"The fortress is just over the emptiness. We should be there in about … um … well I was never really good with time." He admitted shyly. "Lets see, when I left it was on 3, and when I found you it was just getting dark … so around 5. Now It's dark so I'm guessing it's around 6 or 6-6. So we should be there on 7 or 7-6."

Sora frowned in confusion to 5's speech, but then realised that what he meant by "it was on 3" is that the small hand of the clock was on three, and when he said 6-6 or 7-6 he mean 6:30 or 7:30.

"7:30, you mean? So in about an hour."

"Sure." 5 shrugged. "When we get there you can hide out in the clock tower so I can tell 1 you're here."

Sora frowned, "Why do I need to hide out?"

5 shifted awkwardly in his stride. "Well, uh, the other day when I found 9 I hadn't told 1 first thing. He was injured so I needed to help, see? Somehow 1 found out and barged in when I had finished stitching him up. It wasn't pretty."

Sora nodded, grinning slightly. "I can imagine."

5 grinned back. "Anyway, he started yelling, saying that I shouldn't have gone out into the emptiness and brought 9 to us, and that we'll "lead The Beast straight back to us!". So that's why it'll be a good idea for you to hide out for the time being till I, or we, come to get you."

Sora suddenly felt a surge of compassion for the little Stitchpunk. "Thank you, 5, for helping me."

5 dismissed it as if it were nothing. "It's fine. You're welcome."

"It sounds like your getting in trouble for me, and that's the last thing I want."

"No, not if I get to 1 before he gets to us. And besides that, I'm already in trouble with 1 – actually, I'm in permanent trouble with 1 ever since I first joined the group. He just doesn't like me that much."

"Why?"

"Just doesn't." He shrugged. "Didn't like 3 and 4 very much, either, even though they're just kids. Doesn't like 6 and _definitely_ didn't like 7. Only very rarely got along with 2. Already dislikes 9. Only likes 8, because he's the muscle and whatever 1 tells him to do he does. I wish you the best of luck."

Sora chuckled. "Thanks!" He said sarcastically.

* * *

**Hey guys! I know this is a little short but I just REALLLLY wanted to update! **

**In case you have NEVER heard of this movie, it's called **_**9**_** and is based off of a short story by Shane Acker. The movie is directed by Tim Burton, and that's usually all I need to know to watch something. **

**It's not really a Disney movie at all, or in any way connected to Disney other then Tim Burton did **_**The Nightmare Before Christmas, **_**but I just really wanted to put this in, and thought it'd fit in well, too. **

**I suggest looking up the trailer on youtube, if you want to know what everything looks like, the characters, and all that jazz. **

**In other news, I finally got a DeviantART account! I've been debating with myself for months on whether to get one and I finally did! If you want to visit my profile, just copy and past the URL (without spaces) into the search bar below. I drew pictures of Mia, Dan and Amalia if anyone wants to take a look. **

**http:/ honeydripp . deviantart . com /**

**Please Review. **

**Oooo**

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	31. The Source

_Chapter 31: The Source._

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"This way," 5 spoke in a hushed but urgent voice, peaking around the corner before ushering Sora down the now concluded empty hallway. Sora did as he was told and followed gladly. On the way over to the fortress, as 5 had called it earlier that evening, Sora was surprised to state that the two little Stitchpunks had not run into any trouble at all by Heartless, Nobodies or, God forbid, Ghosts – Sora _really_ didn't want to try fighting _those_ things in _this_ form.

That was good, though, because then Sora was able to wholly check out the fortress in all it's vast glory.

It was an old mansion, seemingly unharmed by the war and atmospheric radiation that plagued the world. It looked to be three stories high, but could only have been two, with a wooden tower that looked like it had been built by the previous human owners, with a large clock behind and a gigantic black gate to wrap it all together. Large stone statues, some coved in moss, created a sort of path up to the front door, each one depicting a different individual. When Sora asked 5 about them, he gave no answer – something that was new since he had met the doll – concluding that he didn't know anything about them other than their decorative affect.

"This is where you _live?_" Sora remembers gawking, in which 5 nodded to proudly in conformation.

As they neared closer to the building Sora could now distinctly see church bells hanging over the tower, giving the whole building the appearance of a church rather then an ordinary mansion.

Apparently there were nine of the Stitchpunks all up, but only five of them lived in the house: 7, the only female of them, had fled out of rebellion, 3 and 4, or as 5 called them "the twins", had seemingly gone with her, and of course 2 was carried away by the Cat Beast.

5 led Sora down another long hall, leaving him to wonder whether things in this world only seemed so big because he was so small. After what felt like 10 minutes of wondering down endless corridors, 5 stopped in front of a wooden wall with a rectangle, or close to one anyway, cut out of it to suit the needs of the Stitchpunks. This reminded Sora of the little door within the large door at Disney Castle.

Stepping through the hole, it was clear that they were now actually in the part of the fortress called the clock tower. Inside the wall was a giant bucket with make shift stairs to help the Stitchpunks get inside.

"In here, Sora." 5 said, already making his way up the stairs, Sora following at his heels. The shaft they were now in reminded Sora of an old dumb-water, with a rope in the centre obviously used to pull the bucket up to the top of the tower.

5 moved over to the rope and began to pull, but not before making sure Sora had a study hold on the side of the lift. With a loud screech that made Sora uneasy, the bucket began a slow ascend up. Although, they had not reached even ten feet in the air before 5 began to strain and groan with each pull. Sora, concerned now, looked over to check on the Stitchpunk.

"8 always makes this look _so. Darn. Easy._" 5 managed as he struggled with the ropes.

Sora, abandoning his restraint, rushed over to 5 and grabbed the other side of the rope as fast as he could. "Lemme help you."

5 groaned with another pull, "Thanks!" although it did not sound as stressed as before.

Together the doll and human-turned-Stitchpunk managed to pull the bucket to the top of the tower at a stead pace. As they were rising, Sora took the chance to stare out the large, round stained-glass window built into the side of the wooden tower. Just over the side of the Cathedral was a broken old plane that seemed to have crash landed into the side of it.

They were now reaching to very top of the clock tower, the bucket inched past the two large church bells before finally coming to a stop. The scene that greeted them was the inside of a once beautiful and magnificent Cathedral and back of the clock, where the moonlight was casting inky shadows around the room. Candles were positioned at every corner of the room and toward the front; usually where an alter would sit was a doll sized chair built to resemble a throne, strung together using various found items such as buttons, splinters, rolling pins and an old cloth draped over the entire chair. On the walls were various pictures, but the one that caught Sora's attention first was a large painting of a great, menacing metal creature that resembled a cat of some sort, it's mouth open as if roaring, with a glowing red eye.

5 heard Sora's gasp and walked over. He pointed at the drawing. "That's the Cat Beast." He simply stated.

"The thing that took your friend?"

5 nodded. Sora, sensing this picture was causing him anguish, moved on. Although, the next thing made it worse. Hanging on the next wall was a calender with the name of the month ripped off, along with the numbers 3, 4 and 7. It didn't take Sora long to realise that these numbers actually refereed to the Stitchpunks 5 was speaking of earlier.

5 didn't say anything about this one, so neither did Sora. Instead, 5 led him through to another part of the tower. "Just through here," 5 informed before pulling aside a tattered and dust coated red drape with his torch. They were now standing in a smaller room separate from the rest of the Cathedral. There was much more light in this room; candles were clumped together in groups of seven or eight in corners or on tables or chairs made of buttons, bobbins and thread wheels.

But that was not what Sora's attention was drawn to most, but the smaller Stitchpunk crouched on the floor over large pieces of paper, dipping his hands into the ink bowl beside him and drawing with his fingers all over the paper. Pieces of paper in fact littered and covered almost every flat surface of the room, all of the same round looking object, a Talisman, with three sectors, each baring a different symbol.

Another Stitchpunk sat on the window plane, his attention focussed on something metal and round in his hands.

Neither paid any mind or even noticed the arrival of the two by the door. Sora took this time to study the two dolls.

The one on the floor was physically smaller than he, 5 or the other were. The second thing Sora noticed was that instead of a rough matt woven material the smaller Stitchpunk had black and white striped cotton skin which ended in a short spray of dark brown ropes atop his head, giving him the impression of having dread-locks. Ink blotches and stains covered the majority of his skin, but he had the same type of metal hands and feet as Sora did. The only difference was his eyes. They were still the same binocular, golden rimmed eyes as all of them, but the difference was that his left eye was distinctly larger than the right. He also had a giant black key hanging around his neck for reasons unknown to Sora. Once he moved in just the right position Sora could see the messily painted '6' on his back.

He then turned his attention to the one sitting of the window plane, who, Sora now noticed, was the subject of the smaller doll's drawing. He was made of the same canvas material as Sora, with similar looking clawed hands and feet, and even also had a large zippier along his entire torso, like Sora. The only difference was that he had no ropes or metal for hair, just like 5. His attention seemed to have been stolen by this strange metal contraption in his hands, which he would turn around and around as if he were playing with a Rubik's cube and trying to find the correct colours to match up. Like 6 he was still ignorant to Sora and 5 standing by the door, although also seemed not to have noticed 6 drawing him.

"The source … the source …" A faint whisper could now be heard, and Sora realised that it was coming from 6, and that he was chanting and muttering it over and over again.

5, finally deciding to made their presence known, cleared his throat. The one on the window plane looked up almost immediately, and 6 ceased muttering and drawing to look over to the door with a gasp. Sora became nervous for a moment but relaxed when 6 smiled at him, eyes wide with a kind of child-like curiosity.

5 opened his mouth to say something, but seeming to decide against it, turned to the one on the window. "Have you seen 1?" He asked in a nervous rush.

The Stitchpunk shook his head and shrugged. "You mean after he went crazy on me again? No, haven't seen him all day after that. He isn't up here at least."

5 nodded his head twice. "This is Sora," 5 introduced. "He's, uh … new. 6, try not to scare him. I need to go find 1, so I'll be back later. Maybe." He turned to Sora. "Stay here. Don't go anywhere."

With that he dashed out the door without a second glance, the drape fluttering behind him.

Sora stared at the entrance for a moment before turning to the doll at the window. "Is he always this jittery?"

"I … just got here yesterday." He said. Placing the device on the plane he held out a hand to Sora. "My name's 9."

"Sora." Sora shook his hand.

9 smiled. "Nice to meet you."

Sora didn't have time to think about how 9 didn't question him about his "unusual name" before a hand tugged at his arm and paper was being shoved in his face. Recoiling back a bit, Sora let his eyes trail down to see 6 staring up at him with wide eyes and pointing at his drawing. Forcing a smile Sora took the paper off of 6 and examined it, realising that it was not in fact the same one he was just drawing minutes earlier, but one he plucked off of the walls.

6 bounced on the balls of his feet and pointed at the strange talisman and repeated, this time with amazing clarity, "The source,"

Sora frowned at the image, half confusion, half interest, as 9 walked back to the window and picked the real-life version of the drawing up. "He keeps drawing this thing … over and over."

"Do you have any idea what it is?" Sora asked quietly.

9 shrugged and replied, "Not the slightest. When I woke up in the First Room, as 5 calls it, it was just lying there next to me so I … pocketed it. It must be something important, I guessed, if 6 was drawing it ages before I showed up, but every time I try and give it to him he gets scared and recoils. Watch,"

The Stitchpunk turned to 6 and began to hand the talisman to him, but before it reached arms length the little doll gasped fearfully and jumped behind Sora.

"See?" 9 straightened.

Sora furrowed his brow and nodded, turning around to the little Stitchpunk who was almost trembling behind him, and held up the picture. At the sight of his own artwork 6 seemed to calm down considerately.

"6," He began in a soft, kind tone, like he was speaking to a small child, "What is this?"

6 stared at Sora for a heartbeat and pointed at 9. "The source."

The Keyblade master looked at the talisman for a fraction of a second before turning back, "A source? What is it a source for, 6?"

"_The_ source."

"But for what?" 9 tried, his tone of voice the same as Sora's.

"The … source is just the source ..."

Both boys sighed and leaned back. "He doesn't know." Said 9.

Sora opened his mouth to speak before a quick gleam in the corner caught his eye, and curious as he was, Sora walked toward it as 6 got back to his pictures and 9 began analysing "the source" again.

A couple of 6's drawings was draped over something glassy and reflective, and Sora pulled them to the ground to reveal what looked like a gigantic compact mirror. But it was the sight that greeted him in the mirror that made Sora jump back in shock. At the sound of Sora's cry both Stitchpunks looked up startled, jumping themselves slightly.

"What is it?" 9 asked quickly.

Sora's eyes stayed wide, and he didn't blink for about half a minute before uttering "Is that _me?_"

"...yes?"

Sora thought he looked quite like something that belonged in some Gothic store with the voodoo dolls hanging on hooks on the walls. His eyes were the same binocular lenses as 5, 6 and 9's, and the same lip-less mouth. Although, unlike the others, Sora's "iris'" held a slight bluish tinge. His hair was simply carved, shiny, metal spikes sewn or otherwise attached to the metal plate that spanned his cranium, and his zippier was the crown pendant that usually hung around his neck. His entire skin was the sandy-brown canvas material, the only difference being that it changed to black from the elbows down, where his gloves would have been.

Sora shock his head and turned away from the mirror. "This is worse than Halloween Town," He muttered to himself. "At least vampires are cool ..."

Suddenly shouts could be heard echoing through the large room outside, and all three instantly looked toward the curtained entrance.

"What is that?" Sora asked 9.

"5's coming back with 1 … and by the sounds of it he doesn't seem to happy."

" … Kill us all is what you'll do!" Sora could now make but the words that were being shouted, but he was not at all pleased by them. "Stupid boy, why must you keep going out there?"

"I- I was –"

"Putting all our lives in jeopardy, that's what! There are only five of us left now, do you want that number to drop further?"

Two pairs of light feet and one pair of heavy ones were approaching now, meters away from the door. Sora could hear 5 splutter, "N-no, I-I don't. But if there is a chance t-that … 2 –"

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Someone stepped through the threshold and spoke in a clear, strong voice, "One's the Beast takes you, you are _gone_."

5 stepped through after the man, looking tired, depressed and fearful, followed by a large beefy Stitchpunk. Sora examined the new arrivals. The Stitchpunk he guessed was 1 carried himself with an essence of authority, was more primitively made than the others, with wooden hinges for feet and hands. He was old and fraying, looking to have been patched together many times over, and his iris' were slanted at the edges. He wore a long red cloak around his neck concealing, Sora guessed, the number 1 painted on his back. He had a strange mother of pearl hat bound together with wire that ended in a flat point in the air, with a bronze coin attached to the front. 1 carried around a long staff made from an old gear, with a bell attacked at the top.

The next Stitchpunk, 8, was large and looked to have been designed for great strength. To express this, he has armoured himself with curved pieces of tin, iron and other metal plates. In his hand he carried a very large and intimidating blade that looked like a kitchen knife with a nail used as a handle. On his back, slung over his shoulder was another knife, this one from broken scissors, with the handle looping above his head as if he _needed_ to look more scary and intimidating.

The tension in the air grew and Sora found himself holding his breath when 1 pointed at him with his staff and demanded, "You. Who are you, where did you come from and why are you here?"

Sora took a moment to regain composure before responding, forcing his voice to sound confidant. "My name is Sora. I … woke up here, just like you all did." That was partly a lie, but Sora still didn't want to explain the concept of other worlds, especially with that knife staring at him.

1 frowned, clearly unimpressed. "So_-ra?" _He scoffed. "Strange name for a strange child." Again Sora felt himself getting defensive and felt like telling them that, again, numbers weren't names, but he forced himself quiet. Things tended to come out of his mouth on their own accord as of late, and Sora didn't know why. "You did not answer me properly."

"Didn't I?"

"_Why are you here?_" 1 said slowly, pronouncing each syllable carefully.

"I don't know _why_ I'm here. Do any of you?" Things like that.

1's frown grew deeper, if possible, and Sora cursed himself. "I know why _I_ am here. To keep idiotic children like you three" -he gestured to Sora, 5 and 9- "from getting us all killed by the Cat Beast."

9 stepped forward now, "But what _is_ the Beast? Where did it come from?"

1 stared 9 down with his cold gaze. "Questions like that are pointless. We need to protect ourselves – keep ourselves out of danger."

"But one of you – us – could be in danger – " Sora began.

"You be quiet! You're here barely a day and you think you know everything."

"I wasn't trying to … I never said ..." Sora sighed. "Look, all I'm saying is that 2 could still be rescued."

"I agree with Sora!" 9 stepped forward until he was right beside the keyblade master. "He's out there somewhere. We could go out and look – "

"Too many of us have already been lost!" 1 yelled. "Unless you would like to follow I suggest you let your little "rescue plan" go."

9 looked livid. "No! You're not listening!" He shouted, "He may still be alive! Why won't you try to save him? Why won't you – "

1 pressed his lips in anger and slammed his staff on the floor, immediately silencing 9. "ENOUGH! Enough of this madness!" He looked annoyed at 5, "Go to the watchtower and take your _guests_ with you."

5, stiff with fear, meekly obeyed his superior, watching him and 8, who had not said one word, leave before doing so himself. Headed toward the door he gestured for Sora and 9 to follow. As the three were exiting the clock tower they all turned back just at the right time to see 1 cross the number 2 off of the calender.

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**Please Review. **

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	32. The Need For Friendship

**Hey, guys! Quick update this time! Yay! **

**I'll just cut straight to the case. **

**Enjoy!**

_Chapter 32: The Need For Friendship_

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_Why did I have to run away?_ Sora thought miserably as he watched 5 and 9's exchange over the other side of the watchtower. It had been approximately five hours now since 1 had banished the three to the tower, and Sora, exhausted beyond belief and no matter how much his body fought against him, refused to get a single minute of shut eye for fear of returning to his nightmarish world.

"_Because you were scared. That dream freaked the chickens out of your pants."_

_What kind of a phrase is that?_ Sora really didn't feel like conversing with his Nobody at the moment. Roxas could feel that, but still pushed on.

"_You aren't used to nightmares, I can tell, Sora. I am _you_ don't forget. So what you remember I remember, what you feel I feel – at the most part, what you're afraid of I'm afraid of –"_

_I'm not afraid of spiders, Roxas. _Sora shot at his Nobody, getting more annoyed by the minute and just wishing this conversation to be over.

He could hear Roxas groan in annoyance. _"For the last time, I am _not _scared of _spiders! _I … just don't like them anywhere near me."_

_Whatev. It's still a pretty stupid thing to be afraid of._

"_Oh, and being scared of heights _isn't? _Or clowns, even!"_

_I have a good reason to be afraid of what I'm afraid of –_

"_Bull!"_

– _whilst you, blondie, do not. I mean what, while I was asleep one night did a spider crawl through my ear or something and terrorise you? _Sora could feel his temper rising, and didn't know why he was being so rude to Roxas, or even why he was this mad at all. He knew he was being a major jerk and that he should stop but, surprisingly, he didn't care.

Roxas was silent for a couple minutes, and Sora could sense the hurt feelings of his Nobody like a stab to his chest. It didn't cause him pain, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling either. This is what made Sora sometimes hate the connection between them.

And why was it only him and Roxas? From what Kairi led on she definitely didn't have this strong of a bond with Namine.

Just when he thought that the unasked for conversation was over, Roxas spoke again.

"_I'm going to excuse you being a jerk at the moment and blame it on lack of proper sleep. Which back to the matter at hand, you know if you don't sleep I can't sleep."_

_Bull. _There were many a time when Sora would reach out to his Nobody only to get silent snoring at the back of his mind. _You can sleep at any time when I'm awake. _

"_Yes, but it's uneven and inconsistent and after I wake up I always feel as though I haven't slept at all." _Roxas mumbled.

Sora rolled his mechanic eyes. _Awweh, poor baby. How about you dig though my memories and find a blanky and a bottle, that should do the trick. And then once you are _finally_ getting the "beauty sleep" you've been missing out on this, oh … year you have been inside my head, I can _finally _get a little peace and quite _I've _been missing out on. Sound fair, Roxie?_

That nickname, usually used in a teasing, affectionate or compassionate tone was now drenched with sneer and irritation.

Sora could feel now not only feel his own anger, but Roxas' interlaced in his heart as well. "_Look, Dip Stick! I was gonna let this whole ordeal slide because that's the kind of _guy I am," he said sarcastically, "_but don't think that you can get rid of the guilt of ditching your friends in the middle of the forest Death uses as a door-matt by taking it out on me!"_ Roxas shouted. Sora had never once in the year they'd known each other heard his Nobody this mad. _"Get back into character, Sora! Stop being such a freaking jerk and get some sleep – maybe you'll wake up the person you usually are. Oh, and if you see TUO again, tell him I say 'Hi' and to aim below your belt!"_

The high pitched ringing that suddenly sounded in Sora's ears let him know that Roxas had now left his station. Roxas usually did so when he was being moody, or feeling claustrophobic, or both, or needed to be alone to do some thinking. Unfortunately the only places Roxas could visit was Sora's mural and his memories – which _really_ didn't help the situation one bit.

The keyblader rolled his eyes again, this time more tiredly, and shook his head. _Not like I WANTED to talk to you anyway!_ Sora sent to Roxas. There was a fifty-fifty chance he'd hear it.

Now, with his Nobody gone and Sora had his thoughts, he suddenly felt sickened with himself.

_Where_ had all that come from? And why had Sora been so mad at Roxas for? What were his reasons to go off like that? Nothing, that's what. He really had no reason or right to speak to Roxas like that, and even if he did Sora _never_ would have done it. Keeping his Nobody, who had become like a brother real fast, happy was usually up there with defeating Heartless on Sora's Top-Priority list. And the last thing he swore to himself he would never do on this quest was make Roxas angry or upset, because he knew that him not being able to move around as freely as he could on Destiny Islands was going to be tough on the guy.

Not having his own physical body and complete free will made Roxas felt like a prisoner. No matter how much he tried to deny those feelings, he let them slip when he thought Sora wasn't looking. So keeping this in mind Sora tried to give Roxas as much free will as was possible in their current situation. He could imagine how quiet and lonely it was in there when Sora wasn't conversing with him, so talking with his Nobody as much as he could when he could was a far-out attempt to keep Roxas from loosing his mind.

So all-in-all: Sora felt tired, sick and disgusted.

Tired from lack of sleep, sick from being a jerk to Roxas, and disgusted for running away from Kairi, Mia and Danniel. Right now, the best thing on his side was friendship, and Sora was slowly throwing that away.

The Keyblade Master turned his attention back to the Stitchpunks just as 5 was saying, "This was the first thing we ever built together." He had his hand on an old spyglass pointing out into the wilderness. 5 turned back around and walked from table to table that had 2's maps, reports, sketches and other bits and pieces that to anybody else would have been junk. "… All his work … He was always trying to make sense of things. _Everything _…"

5 looked back out over the emptiness for a moment before turning his gaze to 9. "Is he out there? Is he still alive?" The hope in his voice was almost heartbreaking.

9 met 5's gaze with intensity and determination. "Yes. He could be."

5 looked on in fear, and Sora and 9 could clearly see the conflict on his face. 5 was afraid of going out into the wilderness and what 1 might to to them if they were caught, but there was also a longing to see his old friend again.

9 stepped forward. After looking around to check they weren't being spied on he said "We could go after him,"

5 gasped and recoiled. "Us?"

Sora thought it time to join into the conversation. Getting to his feet, he stated clearly. "I'm coming too. I can help."

9 smiled thanks at Sora before turning back to 5. "No one else besides me and Sora is willing to. We MUST go."

Fear still shone in 5's eye and he looked away, falling silent. 9 sighed and walked over to the spyglass. Looking through it he could see three building like structures. "Look. That's where the creature took him. Out toward those three tall shapes." He pointed.

At 9's words 5 grew ever more cold. He looked out over the plane, horrified. "No … not there … We – we can't." Falling silent for a moment, 5 seemed to think deeply before whispering, "We have rules."

To Sora it sounded like something that should have come out of 1's mouth. 9 seemed to sense the same thing. "Why do you listen to 1?" He asked.

"A group must have a leader." 5 recited.

9 stared at him for a beat before moving forward and placing a hand on his shoulder. "But what if the leader is wrong?"

5 stared up, shocked, and shrugged away from the younger Stitchpunk's hand. He had never thought of a leader being wrong before. It was clear on his face that he was considering 9's statement, but he still couldn't bring himself to disobey 1.

9 straightened. "I'm going." He looked at Sora, who smiled. "_We_ are going to look for him. 5," The Stitchpunk in question turned his head up at his name, "Come with us. We can't do it alone."

He was incredibly torn now. But the fear was still a big aspect. "I … I … I can't."

9 stared for some time before sighing again and turning away. "Wouldn't he have come for you?" Was all he said before he and Sora walked out the door. They were just about to jump into the bucket that would take them to the ground floor when they heard a should of "Wait!".

Turning around Sora and 9 saw 5 running up to them, a little out of breath, and holding a piece of rolled up parchment in his hand. 5 smiled before holding out the paper.

"We're going to need a map."

Ooooooooooooooo

Thunder and lightning struck somewhere in the far distance; a loud cannon shot the sky as the lightning lit it up like fire works. Although, this went unnoticed by dark eyes scanning a computer screen several stars away from Empty Lands.

The room was quite small and stuffy, and dust lingered not only on the cobwebbed wooden walls but also the white marble tiles that looked like they hadn't seen floor polish in aeons. The rain pelted down on the mosaic glass window that probably would have been beautiful once upon a time, granted it hadn't been smashed and needed to be boarded up with a rough plank of small wood.

The would have been some what soothing if the howls of the wind needn't have to fight over the moans of the creatures of the dark that harboured the land like a plague.

All of this – the rain, wind, and the Ghosts – went unnoticed to the girl who was standing in front of the old fashioned computer, speed reading the information before furiously typing a response. Almost unnoticed. She did in fact hear the Ghosts and could imagine their bright, glowing, sightless eyes reflecting a grotesque agony; their mangled limbs struggling to crawl across the barren land and fight against the sand storm whilst dodging the lightning, while red stained tears lit up like fire and dripped into their blue, oozing sharp teeth.

She almost felt sorrow for them. Almost.

A bright flashing on the screen surprised her, and she stopped composing another reply to read it. A message popped up in simple black font:

**_You're findings? _**

The girl frowned. Short, not what she expected and certainly wouldn't give anyone who wasn't her much at all to run with, but she got the message loud and clear. Exiting out of the response she was writing she began to compose a new one.

**Subject OMEGA is currently out-of-bounds. **She wrote and sent.

Seconds seemed to pass before she received the response, **_Out-of-bounds? Elaborate. What is the current location of the subject?_**

The girl sighed, waiting a little while longer than she normally would have to write, **Subject OMEGA has left Terra Mortis. His current location is uncertain. Computer is having difficulty stating the co-ordinates, thus has led me to believe he has breached the border. **

She sent the information off, although an answer took long to reach her. _**Breached the border? How is that possible and why?**_

**Yes, Sir. Terra Mortis has many portals to not only universal worlds, but also harbours wormholes to extra dimensional planets. Although, these are very few and in most cases are impossible to find, which leaves the question as to how Subject OMEGA stumbled across one a mystery. As to "why?", I cannot answer that currently.**

A thunder clapped in the distance, and the screen went blank. No new messages, no new information was being processed or sent over to her. It stayed this way a while, and she new that he must have been processing this information, and going over the impossibility of it. To help pass the time when he would finally respond, she stared at the wall opposite her, at the large map spreading over the entire width and length of it, and at the many pins, tacks, and string running over its area, joining planets and stars together and almost making a mosaic of its own.

Certain areas of the map had their own sector. For example, the right of the map was painted with a pale blue colour, the far left and top corner was painted in dark purple, and the colour occupying the bottom was orange. The realms of Light, Darkness and Twilight.

Some of the worlds had names over the top of them whilst others, ones that have yet to be discovered, were simply given numbers. The strings represented the warp holes connecting these worlds, which ones were like others, which had current contact or former contact, and unfortunately the ones that have been destroyed. These were crossed out with a black marker.

But one particular world sat on it's own, untouched and almost separated by the rest, smack in the centre of the map. All there was to determine the planet were the faint red lines spreading off in every single direction you could think of …

The computer beeped, knocking her out of her trance and almost making her jump.

_**And Subject DELTA?**_

**Subject DELTA is still in-bounds. Computer says that she had just returned to Terra Mortis earlier this evening.** She wrote back.

There was another long pause before another message was went, and when it did she did not like it at all.

_**Leave your base and return to Headquarters immediately. We have matters to discuss.**_

She frowned, shocked. Return to Headquarters?_ Now? _But she had work to do! And the storm …

Groaning she wrote a response. **But, Sir, there is still much to be done. Too much. If I were to return now it would not be done by a much later date. And I also fear that if I leave something important will be sent to the computer while I am out, and I may bypass it later. **

She new the response that was coming before it even came: _**Now, Avery. Take a Door if you have to. **_

The computer beeped and shut itself off. Avery sighed and groaned in disdain. Grabbing her things she took one final look at the map before walking out into the storm and securely shutting the door of the strangers house she had built her own private office, in the deserted town that, if it had any sense, would crumble in on itself.

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**Hope you enjoyed this chapter, even if it wasn't such a long one. **

**Sora's being a jerk.**

**Roxas has a fear of spiders. **I don't know, I just needed something.

**9 likes to help people and 5 was hesitant. **

**Terra Mortis is a another name for Broken Kingdom, in case anyone didn't pick up on it. It's basically a Latin term meaning "Land of Death". **

**And, lookie, I introduced yet another OC! More of Avery's character will be revealed in later chapters, and I can't say she's the last one. There's at least three others to go, but two of them wont make an appearance until near the end of this story. They'll be mentioned, but not completely introduced. **

**Stay tuned, folks! **

**Please Review.**

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	33. New Kind

**Hey guys! I don't really have much to say so I'll just cut to the chase. I'll just mention fist, though, that I am in between exam blocks at the moment so uploading may be very scarse, and even if I do manage to upload by some strange phenomenal chance then the chapters may continue to be very short. I'll try and make them longer, but that may take longer to update. We'll just see what happens. **

**Anyhoo, Enjoy!**

_Chapter 33: New Kind_

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Dan was thrown out of the Door head first and landed in the hot sand, causing him to eat the dirt. With a gasp the guardian attempted to push his now strained limbsand lift himself off the ground, all the while trying to shake the air back into his lungs. But before he could do so and shimmering bell-like tone sounded not far behind him, before a loud _creech! _and a scream erupted. Something smacked into Danniel's back and sent him down again hard. Seconds later the process was repeated. The Door behind them shook as three different people groaned and moaned in pain, before screeching loudly again and dissipating right before them.

It was by far the worst landing they'd ever had. _Ever_. And did Dan blame Sora? Yes, he did.

The trip through it from Broken Kingdom was no better. Once stepping through Kairi, Mia and Dan all felt like they'd just been dumped on some kind of senseless rollercoaster that defied almost every law of nature you could think of. The tunnel, though they couldn't normally remember it but for some reason managed to this time, was mainly dark save for the random flashes of gold, purple and pink lights. Sometimes they were being pushed through a narrow or wide strip, other times tumbling through. They were now and again being sucked vertically upwards into the vortex only to stop and plummet straight down below. They then continued to float down the jacked up rabbit hole before the whole process was repeated again in fast forward, and the entire ride was concluded by them being propelled up an out by some mysterious force.

It made sense right then that maybe _that _was why the keybladers were always so nauseous after stepping though, not the actual magnetic pull, as they had concluded before. They also would have felt concerned or the least bit curious as to _how _they could remember his particular trip and not others if they weren't in so much pain.

Kairi, the last one to fly out of the portal (even though she was the first to step through) thus landing on top of Mia then Dan, shook her head and waited for her surroundings to individualise themselves again before slowly sliding off of the two under and landed on her bottom. The overall experience reminded the princess of their journey to Disney Castle but ten times worse. If it were possible. Mia then slid off and plopped down next to Kairi in a similar manner. Dan just stayed motionless in the dirt, trying to regain his senses.

Neither one of them had noticed their new appearances.

"Oh, that was just painful," Kairi placed a clawed hand in her red yarn like hair, her other arm resting on her leg, with skin that was made of smooth cream cloth. Her torso was tied up in a roped ribbon and metal eyes slightly purple.

All Mia could do was nod, not able to find her voice. She had similar styled hair to Kairi, only longer and tied up. She had the same cream skin and clawed hands and feet, the only difference being that she also had canvas patches sewn into her various places on her legs and right arm, and there were round gold buttons down her torso. Her eyes were slightly blue.

Dan lifted himself off the ground finally, "No, _painful_ is a broken leg or having to sit through four unit trigonometry. _That_ was just a whole new level of crazy!" Like Mia and Kairi, he too had a slight tinge of his eye colour in the black irises. Dan had a creamy brown coloured canvas skin with a big zippier down his torso. His hands were a rusty red colour, minus the actual rust, with patches on his legs and a slight tear above his eye where his scar would usually be. Unlike Mia or Kairi, Dan had no rope for hair, or anything that would symbolise hair at all. Except for a patch of black fabric atop his cranium.

Dan sighed, "Ugh … we just got beat up by a door. _There's_ a major ego bruise –"

Three pairs of eyes met each other. Mia, Kairi and Dan then all jumped back considerably on the arid plane, screaming in the meantime, scurrying further away as far as they could get from each other.

After they all stopped screaming – finally – the keybladers sat there panting in the dirt before Mia broke the silence, "Where the HELL are we?"

"We look like voodoo dolls!" Kairi shouted, staring from one to the other then down herself.

"No offence, but you chicks look creepy!"

Mia and Kairi immediately stopped freaking out to glare at Dan. "This coming from the bald man." Kairi hissed.

Dan blinked and furrowed his bro in confusion, now attempting of rise to his feet, "What are you talking about? I am not bald!"

Mia chuckled evilly and pointed at him. Lifting his clawed hand up to his head Dan felt around for his hair. And left only canvas. "Ah hell! Why am I bald?" He shouted before pointing an accusing finger at the two girls. "How come you have hair?"

Mia, whom had just managed to get to her feet, placed her hands on her hips and glared at her guardian, "Girls can't be bald, moron!"

Dan rose to his feet also, "Says _you!_"

The auburn haired girl rolled her gold rimmed eyes. "I thought you didn't care about your appearance, emo. You never did – I remember you rocking up to school one day like you'd just ran there from bed."

Dan thought for a moment as Kairi giggled at the image. "That was eight years ago! And I was _ten!_"

Kairi laughed again before getting up from the ground and looking around them. "As entertaining as this exchange is, I think we should find out where we are and then see how we're gonna go about finding Sora."

"First things first," Dan said, "did either of you get a good look at that door?"

Kairi looked to where the Broken Kingdom Door had sat minutes earlier and nodded. "I did." A thought suddenly struck her and she concluded, "It didn't look right. I mean, it didn't really have quite the same extravagance as the one from Inca Empire. But ignoring that the Door just looked … off. The image on its face and the overall atmosphere off it was just weird. And it looked almost …" Kairi frowned, "rusted?"

"Guys," Mia began suddenly, catching Kairi and Dan's attention. "You know how I feel? I feel jet lagged. Like we'd just made a very long trip."

Kairi looked over in the distance, processing what the girl had just said. Over the near hill were three tall towers that looked like they once would have been part of a factory once upon a time. Birds that resembled vultures circled the middle one. She turned back around. "Exactly what world _are_ we on?"

Dan looked thoughtful and there was a pause before they heard his voice again, "I've never encountered it. _Empty Lands_ … it doesn't even sound familiar."

Mia went quiet and into her own thoughts as Kairi looked between them, slightly scared now. "Should that be concerning?" She asked Dan.

"Yeah, it should." He nodded and met Kairi's gaze. "In order to become a guardian I had to go through this whole training process. Trials, mock battles, reading all these books, yadda, yadda. The whole ordeal was agonising but essential. Anyway – part of the requirements of a guardian is to have a broad knowledge of the universe, so I had to learn the names of _every _world and all the facts about them – I'm talking population, size; when it was born and what of; what category and so on. Do you have _any_ idea how many worlds we have just in _our_ solar system alone?" He suddenly leaned forward and yelled with tired frustration in his voice, startling Kairi.

The princess recoiled a bit and shook her head. Mia broke out of her thoughts momentarily to say, "Danny, trailing a tad off topic there, sweetie."

Dan leaned back and chuckled nervously. "Heh, oh, right – sorry. Just a year of my life I'll _never get back_ … Anyway, as I was saying: while studying all the worlds I cannot seem to remember one called Empty Lands. And I have a photographic memory! I swear it was nowhere in any books or files or archives I looked through. And there were hundreds. They even had archives on _destroyed_ worlds!"

Kairi and Mia stood there processing all Dan had just said. "You're sure you'd never encountered it?" Mia took her hand off her chin and asked.

Dan shook his head firmly. "Not even anything close to it."

Suddenly realisation crashed full force into Kairi and she let out a startled gasp. Mia and Dan abandoned their train of thoughts and immediately turned to the red head. "What is it?" They asked in sync.

Kairi didn't answer right away but bit her lip before moving closer to the two future keybladers. "Ok, this may sound a little crazy,"

Dan snorted, "Ha. Don't worry; we're used to crazy, hon. What's up?"

"Well, you said that this world wasn't in any of the things you had to study?"

Dan nodded. "Yeah,"

"And they included every single star in _our_ universe?"

He nodded again. "I'm listening."

"Well what if –" she gestured to the arid plane, hills and valley surrounding the three "– this whole place is not _in_ our universe?"

" … Yeah you just lost me."

Kairi found herself groaning at his disbelieving tone, suddenly feeling impatient and dawning on her that they should be off looking for Sora instead of standing there arguing. "Come on, it's possible!" She insisted.

Dan wagged his finger, "No, it is not possible! Kairi, outer dimensional travel is _unmanageable_. Even in our time they haven't cracked it yet!"

Mia made a sound then that for some reason sounded to Dan like she was agreeing with Kairi.

"What?" He turned to her. "You think we're in another dimension? I thought you were more logical than that, Emilia!"

Mia tilted her head to the side and clicked her tongue. "Well yeah, but you have got to admit it does fit in to our situation." Dan was about to say something else but she cut him off, "I don't suppose Broken Kingdom came up in any of those archives, Danny?"

Dan opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it and growled, surrendering to defeat. "Fine. Say we are on an outer dimensional world – how the hell do we get off it?"

Kairi cut in, "First we need to find Sora!"

The guardian clicked his fingers. "Right, yeah, almost forgot about him. Numero de moron une." He sighed. "Fine, Kairi, we'll go find your idiot boyfriend."

Kairi frowned as Dan started off toward the three towers. Mia walked up to her and patted her arm comfortingly. "Don't worry, Kairi. We'll find Sora. Oh, and just ignore him," she pointed toward Dan. "He gets more and more emo the longer you know him."

**Oooooooooooooooooooo**

"What is _that?_"

5's frightened shriek was enough to make Sora and 9 jump as they were looking over the map of the plane once more. Sora, battle instincts kicking in, looked in the direction 5 was staring and had to bite back a gasp of his own. There in the distance making a quick advance on them was, sure enough, a group of Heartless.

Sora immediately jumped in front of 5 and 9, calling his keyblade in the process and ignoring the two when they gawked at it with a mixture of curiosity and fright.

"Whatever you do, stay behind me." He instructed.

"But what are they? And can we help you fight them?" 9 asked, leaning over Sora's shoulder to get a better look at the Heartless, which were getting nearer and looking more and more mechanical.

Sora shook his head, "They're these things called Heartless. And you would get hurt trying to fight them without one of these." He held up Eclipse.

5 leaned over now too, "Should we really just be standing here?" He asked with a slight shake in his voice.

Sora looked at them for a moment. "If we run they'll just follow. I leant that the hard way. But if we fight them here and now we should be able to get away hopefully with no more on our tail."

"Should? Hopefully?" 5 echoed.

"You keep saying 'we'." 9 pointed out over 5's words. He grabbed Sora's arm. "Please, if there is any way at all that we can help you fight those … things, tell us!"

The Keyblade Master shook his head again, this time with a comforting smile. "Sorry 'bout the 'we'. I'm used to have two of my friends with me everywhere I go when we fight the Heartless. And you'd be safer out of it – 9! Where are you going?" Sora shouted when 9 suddenly dashed of up the hill they'd just descended from and ran over to an old car and pulled out some long metal stick that may have been a gear shift once upon a time. Then he ran around to the front and yanked the side view mirror out before running back to Sora and 5, handing the mirror to 5 and keeping the gear shift.

Sora stared at him for a moment curiously. "Wow, you are persistent." Groaning in defeat Sora stared at the objects in both their hands before looking up to them again. The Heartless were just over the hill. "Ok, those instruments won't do much in terms of harming them but if you can use those to keep them away from yourselves before I can get to there then that's fine."

Sora looked over his shoulder at the Heartless and bit back another gasp. These ones were like nothing he'd ever seen before. Instead of pure shadow these Heartless seemed to be made of a kind of black metal, with a rectangular fat body, round head with glowing Heartless eyes and eight legs. They looked like giant spiders.

Sora took a deep breath, "You ready?"

"Ready," 9 and 5 replied as best they could.

The first spider lunged itself up over the hill and onto Sora, catching him off guard. Knocking him to the ground the Heartless attempted to claw at him, but Sora somehow managed to kick it off of him and regain his footing. Motioning for 5 and 9 to move back and faced the Heartless full on. It lunged again but this time Sora was ready and met its metal arm with his keyblade. There was a mechanical clinking sound, but his Keyblade sliced its flesh the same as any other Heartless. It recoiled in pain when Sora sliced its leg then lunged back with double intensity. They clashed for a moment, Sora blocking all the Heartless' attacks but it too dodging all of his.

Suddenly another came at his back and scratched him across the shoulder blade, causing Sora to yelp in pain. Slashing the first Heartless once across the body, not enough to kill it but to wound it so that he can momentarily take care of the other one, Sora spun around only to find that it was being swatted away from him by 9's metal rod over to 5, who smashed it over the head with his mirror.

Sora turned back around and finished off the Heartless he was working on. In the corner of his eye Sora could see black and purple smoke and a tinge of something red floating toward to sky before leaping through the air and landing smack on top of the one near 5, that was about to slash its long spidery limbs at him. Sora's keyblade ran straight through its head and body. It twitched in pain for a second before combusting. 5 watched the pink heart float upward with wide eyes.

"Don't worry about me – protect yourselves!" Sora orders before running over to 9 and helping out with his Heartless as another one lunged itself at 5. Sora groaned when he reached 9 and began fighting.

_If they stayed close to each other this would be so much easier …_ He thought. _Worry about 9 first, then go back to 5. He seems to be taking good care of himself – woops, spoke to soon! _Just as he thought that the Heartless he was fighting off jumped onto his shoulders and pushed him to the ground. 5 cried out and Sora momentarily abandoned the one he was fighting with 9 and shot a _Blizzard_ spell over to it, shooting it off 5 and to the ground, where the ice slowly spread over its ugly body before breaking it into a dozen pieces.

"5! Come over here!" Sora ordered and the Stitchpunk quickly dashed over. "Stay together. You'll be safer that way!" He said and finished off the fourth Heartless. Four down, two to go.

Sora moved over to the fifth Heartless and began fighting it. The spider swung its legs at Sora who quickly brought up Eclipse to block the attack. The Heartless swung again, this time managing to scratch Sora's upper thigh, and leave a tear in his skin. Sora groaned in pain and thrust his blade at the spider, managing to pierce shadowy metal skin. The Heartless screamed silently before twitching and coming at Sora again. There was a hole in the middle of its body leaking a black substance Sora couldn't place on the ground and on his feet. The Heartless still fought but seemed to lose a considerable amount of its strength.

A thought suddenly occurred to Sora and he shouted over his shoulder to where 9 and 5 were fighting off the last remaining Heartless. "9! 5! If you run the Heartless through the middle with your weapons you should be able to injure them. Aim to where the heart should be!"

But when the response he received was "What is a heart?" Sora momentarily forgot about the killer spiders and gaped at 9 and 5, shock evident on his face.

"What?" Something slammed into Sora's back and cut his cry short. The Keyblade Master hit his head when he landed on the ground, the Spider Heartless looming above him, its eight legs pinning his down, big mouth like a black hole, pincers ready to pierce into his flesh.

The Heartless growled maliciously, raising up to its full height and letting four of its legs off of Sora. Big mistake. When the spider was getting ready to sink its pincers into Sora's neck, with a move as quick as lightning he lifted his Keyblade up to the Spider Heartless just as it was moving toward him and pierced it through its mouth.

The Heartless twitched and convulsed, its ugly shadow so close now that the same black liquid dripped onto Sora's cheek, and he could see his reflection in its cold yellow eyes. There was a flash of something in those eyes, but Sora ignored it and trust his blade deeper into the Heartless before it completely erupted in smoke and a blood red heart slowly twirled its way into the sky. Again, there was something in the heart, a flash of colour, but it dissolved into pink sparks before Sora could get a good look at it.

Another popping sound echoed around the now silent hill and Sora tilted his head to where he still lay on the ground to see an upside down image of a pink heart floating downward. Sora quickly righted himself and looked to 5 and 9 in shock. Huh, so they'd managed to defeat a whole Heartless after all. Perhaps he'd misjudged the two little Stitchpunks.

But still, "What is a heart?" was still echoing around and around his head, as he tried to grasp it.

Sora got to his feet shakily, "Are you two ok?"

They dropped their weapons and nodded weakly. Sora noticed that 5 had a tear on his leg and 9 on his arm. Sora lifted his keyblade above his head and uttered a _Cure_ spell, and watched as the refreshing green light fell over their bodies, one by one, making them feel better and clearing their heads and wounds. 9 and 5 jumped back for a second, but then looked down to their arm and leg and saw their canvas skin stitch itself up without the need for a needle and thread, and looked up to Sora with awe.

Sora felt like asking what they meant when they said "what is a heart?" but something gnawed at him not to. The image of 5 pulling the zippier on his torso down and digging around his insides flooded back to him. There were no organs, not blood. Nothing but wires and this weird box thing that 5 stated was his "voice box". Suddenly Sora felt very cold and empty, and missing his friends even more.

He really shouldn't have run through that Door. He knows that now. And those damn spiders didn't really help the cause one bit.

Spiders …

Roxas.

Sora inwardly groaned. It had been hours since he last heard a peep from his Nobody, and absolutely _hated_ how he had left things off, but he had no idea where he was or if Roxas would even answer if he called. He'd probably be sitting in his station, still boiling with anger and hating Sora.

He will fix it. Tonight. Sora will go to his station and apologise and –

His station! Sora almost slapped himself, but couldn't imagine what it would look like to 5 and 9. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before. If Sora didn't want to face the dreams that would undoubtedly come, then all he had to do was visit his station and stay there! No nightmares and better yet, he'll feel rested up and fresh in the morning when he woke up!

_I am such and idiot! _Sora thought, and, hoping it may make things a little better, sent it out to Roxas as well but received no reply. Oh well, it might be best to give Roxas some space before he spoke to him later to say sorry.

Sora shook himself out of his thoughts and focussed back on the task at hand. 2. They still needed to find him.

"Right. We better get going again." Sora said. The other two nodded and they immediately began their trek the rest of the way down the hill over to the three towers.

* * *

**Well, that's the end of chapter 33! **

**Numero de moron une – "Moron number one", in French. **

**In the movie, most of the Stitchpunks – well, all except for 6 – are bald. Even the girl. I had this issue with that and couldn't really picture Kairi or Mia, or even Sora for that matter, bald, so I have them "hair". The only KH character I left bald was Dan. I don't really know why, I just thought it'd be funny. **

**The next chapter should get back onto the script, so stay tuned!**

**Please review. **

**oooo**

**o o**

**o**


	34. Ineviatble Storm

_Chapter 34: Ineviatble Storm_

* * *

"Look! Over there!" 5's exclamation alerted Sora and 9. Dread immediately washed over Sora, thinking that 5 had spotted more Heartless in the distance, but when he turned, posture ready to summon his Keyblade at the moment's need, all he found was empty plane, with 5 running over to something sticking out of the ground.

9 and Sora shared a glance before deciding to follow 5 in case he got too far away and they were all separated. It looked like a long metal pole of some sort that got half buried in the sand from a storm not long ago. Next to the pole lay a hat, or what Sora guessed was supposed to be a hat. Its rim was round and it could have been a top hat if someone hadn't cut the top part and tied a light bulb to it. Although the hat was ripped and the bulb no longer sat tight in the hat.

5 slowly bent down to lick up the broken hat while 9 yanked the pole out of the ground. The one eyed Stitchpunk stared sadly down at the hat and brushed the dirt off of it as best he could. 9 also looked from the pole to the hat and looked on to 5 compassionately. Sora, still confused as to what was going on, leaned forward and softly spoke, "5?"

"It was 2's." Was all he replied with, gesturing to the hat.

9 stepped forward. "You looked out for him?" He asked 5.

"_He_ looked out for _me_." 5 corrected, his voice almost a whisper now. "He taught me everything he knew." The light bulb on the hat finally gave in; the rope that was keeping it secured to the hat snapped and it fell to the ground.

5's face filled with grief and Sora immediately rushed forward. "This means he's out here somewhere, right? And if he left his hat here, then he must not be that far away."

5 slumped, "Or …" He refused to finish the sentence. The alternative was one neither one of them wanted to think about. "I just want to know what he was doing out here all alone."

Sora placed a reassuring hand on 5's shoulder. The simple gesture made him stand up straighter a fraction.

"We will find him." 9 spoke in a determined voice, and 5 straightened up to his full height, just as determinedly. Face filled with a spontaneous hope, 5 put 2's hat on his head. 9 offered the pole – 2's staff – to him as well, but 5 made a gesture for him to hold it. They all moved on again.

Sora could now see the towers in the distance mush more clearly, and, he had to admit, they looked pretty impressive and intimidating at the same time, as well as the fact that they were much larger than he first anticipated.

About half an hour later a strong wind began to pick up, as well as the fact that dusk was soon approaching. It had been a pretty long day for the three, and Sora allowed the exhaustion from the journey distract him from his other problems – these being Roxas and Kairi, Mia and Dan. Tough during rests the Keyblade Master did wonder for a bit what was going on back on Broken Kingdom. Had dawn broken yet? He wasn't fully up to scratch with how time worked there but he had a feeling that the nights seemed to last a lot longer than the days. Go figure. More time for the Ghosts to hunt and play. What were they doing? Are they worried? Are they mad? Did they try and find him? Sora was pretty sure that the three _had _tried to follow him, but it'd be pretty stupid for them to try and follow him through the door. What if they got the wrong one and ended up on some random world they knew nothing about with a story to complete before they could return.

Sora knew completely how hypocritical that sounded, but at the moment he didn't care. Didn't care what happened to _himself_. All that mattered was Kairi, Mia and Dan keep themselves safe, and not risk their lives because of him. And besides, he knew they were all smarter than to run through the Door after him. Right?

Sora had grown up with Kairi, so he knew how smart she was. Way smarter than him, and if anyone needed proof just take a look around at the desert filled with debris and devastation with the three creepy towers they were now charging straight towards looking like voodoo dolls.

Dan was also pretty intellectual, Sora could tell. Being only 17 years old and knowing all those things about Gummi ships. Sora's never met a technician below the age of 30 let alone 18! And knowing how to blend in perfectly in a completely different time and make it believable. Behind that sour attitude and cold expression was a real genius.

And Mia! _Mia, Mia, Mia … _Sora smiled. There was _a lot_ to say about that girl, that's for sure. The way she just waltzed into the ward at Disney Castle and told that doctor how to do her job, defended Sora and helped him fight that giant Heartless even though she had no idea who he was. And all the medical facts she spurted out, seeming to know exactly what was wrong with him standing all the way across the other end of the room when the doctor was standing right in front of him. It was true that she had saved him hours of pain, and for someone who did _not_ like pain – who did? – Sora owed her a lot. And that vow that Mia and Dan both made to protect him, Kairi and Riku –

_Riku_ … Dread suddenly filled Sora to the core. _Riku … Donald … Goofy …_ Where are they? It had been a good four to five days since they last saw each other, since the Gummi ship had been ripped in two right in mid-air. Sora winced. The last thing he had said to Donald was to kill anything that looked like a threat to them on sight. He remembered all the Heartless ships advancing on them, surrounding them, firing upon them as they fought back as best as they could, his friends shocked and fearful faces, and Donald's shocked and slightly shaky voice after Sora shouted the order over the intercom.

_Slightly shaky … _

Sora just remembered now, or it hadn't actually registered before, but Donald's voice did sound strange when he responded.

"_I need you to forget about the Heartless for now! Fire everything at that ship! Guns, missiles, cannon balls, spells – I don't care! Just take down that ship!" _

"…_R – Roger." _

Sora groaned quietly. The order _did_ come across more forceful then he had initially intended it to. But that strange burning sensation in his eyes, palms and heart was something that probably needed more questioning, but Sora, every time he thought about it, pushed it further and further into the back of his mind.

"Why was he out here alone?" 5's cautious whisper brought Sora back to the present and out of his thoughts. He shook his head – so much for distractions.

Up ahead he could see 9 shrug. Deep in thought Sora had trailed a little behind the two. "That's a good question."

"Yes … the ones we're not supposed to ask." 5 whispered ruefully. 2's hat looked very heavy on the one-eyed Stitchpunk.

9 looked at 5 with a shocked expression and 5 met his with a blank one. Sora realised it too. This was the first time 5 had ever said something that would it the least challenge 1's rule. 9 looked slightly proud when he smiled warmly at his companion and nodded.

The environment was changing now. Over the hill there were more trees and old ruins that would have been buildings and roads once upon a time. They were walking in an old field with lots of dangerous looking tanks and, Sora guessed, trip mines. Over to their left a yellowing parachute blew in the wind where it was tangled around a tree branch.

5, worried, pulled out the map and frowned. Sora walked faster until he fell in step with the two. He leaned over 5 to see the map just as 9 was asking, "Where are we?"

5 shook his head miserably. "I don't know."

Sora looked over in the distance at the towers and, unmistakably, looked further away than they had been hours before.

_What? How is _that_ possible? We were walking right towards them!_

As if their situation couldn't possibly get any worse, a sudden gust of wind blew at them, ripping the map right out of 5's hands. "No!" 5 shouted as he desperately tried to run after it, but it was too dangerous. The wind had blown the parchment up and over a railing where it got stuck on a broken pole. Directly below it was a straight drop. Sora and 9 both place a hand on 5's shoulders to stop him from running to it.

5 turned to Sora and 9 in despair. "It's no use. We should go back!"

"What?" Sora shouted over the wind. "We've come so far to just turn around!"

9 pressed his lips and looked around them. Just over on the other side of a small ditch was a narrow trench. Grabbing both 5 and Sora 9 pulled them over to it, where an underground tunnel sat, looking dark and dangerous.

Without saying a word 9 attempted to pull them both over to it. One look at the tunnel a stab of fear hit Sora's stomach and the winds grew stronger and louder. Dust was beginning to circle the air.

5 protested and shook his head. "It's too dark!"

9 groaned in frustration. "We can't stay out here in this storm! We're going to be buried in a matter of _minutes_ if we do!"

5 recoiled more. "We can't go in there either – look!" He pointed to something on the ground that Sora never would have spotted. There, imprinted in the dirt, was a giant footprint.

"The Cat Beast!" 5 shouted.

9 was slightly taken aback, but planted his feet nonetheless. "The Beast carried 2 away! What if he is down there" – he pointed at the tunnel – "hurt or something? He may need our help!" 9 suddenly turned to Sora. "You have been awfully quiet," He pointed out. "Come on, if we stay out here not only will we never see 2 again, but we can _die_!"

Sora looked at 9 quietly and the winds died down just a fraction. Then, nodding with determination, he helped 9 push 5 into the trench. With a shocked cry the Stitchpunk stumbled into the tunnel with Sora and 9 running in behind him. Their surroundings were almost pitch black.

"Now what?" 5 asked as he lifted himself off the ground. 9 looked around for something that could light there way but frowned when he found nothing.

A sudden thought occurred to Sora and, putting it to action, he slowly lifted his hand up to his mouth. Rubbing them together, like trying to warm them up.

9 and 5 noticed this and turned to him. "Sora?" 9 asked, "What are you doing?"

Sora paid no heed to them and covered his stitched mouth with his metal hands and closed his eyes. Softly, so that the two could hear, his voice low like a caress, Sora whispered, "We need light to guide our way."

Pulling his hands away, he opened his eyes to see the tiniest orange glow sitting snug in his right palm. 5 and 9 stared at it and at Sora in awe, and together the three watched as the little orb slowly grew and grew until it was the size of his whole hand, and the trench around them was now engulfed in this warm, orange-yellow light.

Sora liked at the light and couldn't help but be a bit proud of himself. 5 and 9 smiled at Sora widely, and the Keyblade Master didn't think he'd ever seen the two's faces so bright.

"Wo_oooow_ …" They whispered simultaneously. 5 turned around to look further into the tunnel. "I can see for miles!"

Sora stood on his toes to look over his head. "Miles?" He mimicked, smiling modestly. "It's just a _little_ ball."

9 chuckled slightly, "It's great. Let's get moving."

As the three began their way deeper and deeper into the tunnel, a thought suddenly occurred to Sora. "You know," He began, catching their attention, "you two never seem to ask how I can pull giant weird keys out of thin air and fight off spiders made of shadow with it and conjure up balls of light."

9 and 5 exchanged a look before 9 said, "I just didn't want to ask,"

"And I didn't want the answer."

Sora and 9 frowned and looked at 5, who stopped walking. He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Er … I mean … it's just nice not to have rules, for once." He explained, making Sora and 9 both laugh.

**Oooooooooooooooo**

Three Stitchpunks tumbled into a narrow cave, heaving and coughing as well as trying to wipe the dust out of their shaggy new hair and binocular eyes. Kairi stopped mid stride, breathing deeply and trying to catch her breath. Her throat felt tight and she guessed that she had probably swallowed more than a healthy amount of dust. Mia was next to run into the cave closely followed by Dan. After making sure that both girls were alright, he fell against the hard coal wall of the cave and collapsed on the ground. Mia felt her legs give out from under her and fell down beside him.

Kairi groaned as she shook her head, arms and legs; what would have been a bucket load slowly fell to the ground with a soft _hiss_. She turn around to stare out the entrance to the cave and watched the bellowing winds throw around dirt and trees and debris like they were simply feathers caught in a soft breeze.

"So this is what a dust storm looks like …" The sentence tumbled out of her mouth without her consent. The tone was quiet, but somehow Dan heard it.

"Yeah," His voice was hoarse and Kairi guessed he must have swallowed a mouth full of dust too, "nasty things to be caught in. You don't have dust storms on your Island?"

She was surprised to find not the slightest tinge of a sarcastic tone in the guardian's voice; he seemed generally curious.

Kairi shook her head. Her breathing was becoming more even now. "No, not really. I mean, it's a topical island and all …"

Mia groaned slightly and buried her head in Dan's shoulder. "Lucky."

"Where are we?" The red-head asked.

"I have absolutely no idea." Dan responded. "Just saw that we'd die if we walked thought that thing any longer, saw a cave and thought "Charge!"."

All three of them were too tired to even attempt at laughing.

Kairi watched the two future Keybladers furtively as Dan's head lulled back and fell softly on Mia's forehead, exhaustion finally proving too much for him. She smiled a bit. If anyone from the outside were to listen to them speak to each other, they'd think that both loathed the other. That _is_ what Kairi thought in the beginning – what with all the bickering and name calling and hateful stares and "Why did I have to be paired with you"s.

But after a long while she realised that to truly see what's beneath the surface you had to watch their body language. One would snap and the other would yell every few minutes, but they always stood next to each other, quite close, Dan slightly in front in a protective stance. Dan hardly ever smiled for anyone one them, but would bend over backwards if Mia needed any reassurance. Same thing goes with her trying to make him laugh of smile whenever she could.

Now they seemed like really good friends. Or at least they were once upon a time … before feelings far bigger than friendship settled in. Kairi looked at them as their breathing was now getting more and more even. They looked like they were ready to fall asleep; Dan's mouth just above her eyebrow, Mia's eyes resting at the crook of his neck. That was the only part of their bodies that touched, but still, the moment looked so romantic and strangely intimate that it almost made Kairi want to look away and give the pair some privacy, but also made her feel envious of their relationship.

There was a time, a long time ago, that she and Sora _were_ like that. Kind of. Just after he got back after the almost two year separation from each other there were a few weeks where you wouldn't see Sora without Kairi, and vice versa. They had Riku with them most of the time as well and the three of them would just take some time out to be kids again, ordinary 15 to 16 year olds. How they were before the great storm came and fate had forced the three to grow up mush sooner than they were ready for.

But when Riku was busy in town, helping his dad out with the hotel and what not, Sora and Kairi would just spend time together, walking along the beach, sparring – Sora took it upon himself to train Kairi to properly use her Keyblade and magic, if ever a situation called for it, or just plain goofing around at the beach or in the Secret Place. Anywhere they went, whether alone or with Riku or Tidus, Selphie and Wakka, Sora was still the life of the party. He just had this natural charm on him that he can make _anyone_ smile or laugh; intentionally or accidental. But occasionally Kairi caught glimpses of that maturity that was injected into Sora; when they were alone on the beach at night and they heard a strange noise that seemed out of the ordinary – even though it would always end up being just the trees – Sora would immediately turn to it, seeming to know exactly where it came from, fearing the worse.

It was amazing how much his senses had enhanced: hearing, sent and his eye sight was better than ever! His reflexes were the most improved, of course. One time last year, about a month after Sora and Riku got home, there was an incident in their science class. A group in the back was goofing around, playing with the beakers and Bunsen turners and test tubes, seeing how much chemicals they could poor into the thin tube before it began to fizz up. One of the stupid guys, Josh, decided he was going to be _extra_ stupid that day and waved a Bunsen burner at one of the girls he was working with when it was still on.

It was just a joke, to him anyway, but the girl screamed at the sight of an orange flame coming her way and backed into the glass storage cupboard behind her. Sora heard her crash into it before the loud and bone trembling _screech_ of the big glass cupboard began to tip. The other three immediately jumped out of the way before it began to tip. Thankfully Sora, Kairi, Riku and Selphie were working just opposite to their bench otherwise he may not have reached the girl in time. Sora jumped out of his seat, grabbed the girls arm and pulled her back fast. They both landed against the floor with shattered pieces of glass and a huge broken cabinet an inch from their feet.

Sora got angry and yelled at Josh for being idiotic and almost killing their classmate, and he accused Sora of just wanting to be back in the spotlight. They'd hated each other ever since.

Kairi was surprised by that outburst, since Sora rarely ever yelled at anyone. He began having nightmares and got into an argument with his mother a few times, and sort of distanced himself from her for a few days after finding out that his cousin who was three years younger than him had disappeared a year and a half ago, and that his parents had died in a car accident a couple weeks later, explaining why Poppy – losing both her big brother, mom and dad, was now living with them.

What Kairi thought bothered Sora most about the whole ordeal was that it all sounded too normal. Car crashes, missing persons, possible kidnapping … it was all too real, too _ordinary_. No Heartless slaughters and Nobody attacks. Sora had to remind himself that the Destiny Islanders knew nothing about what happened when their precious home was swallowed by a "storm", and the information they did know was small and limited and written by King Mickey. Sora had to train himself to adapt all over again, but this time it was back into the way he was before. And how he did that was by never again mentioning the year previous; the fights and the shadow creatures. The only thing he kept real and in mind were Donald and Goofy. He never wanted to forget them. But everything else could just fly out the window for all he cared. But of course, King Mickey's letter arriving three months after they got back and then it taking him a _year_ to actually arrive didn't help that plan one bit.

After he actually did show up, Kairi couldn't help but feel slightly distanced from Sora. That anger spurt in the beginning, the new powers and the overload back at Disney Castle, the nightmares, how it took him forever to tell anyone about The Unnamed One …

It was all just too out of character Kairi didn't know how to handle it.

But little did she know that all through her thoughts Mia had been listening – her mental voice was pretty loud. All through it Mia could see what Kairi saw, could see Sora changing slowly before her eyes and distance himself from his friends …

She knew the reason, of course, but Kairi and Riku didn't. Neither did Sora.

And it made her want to cry.

* * *

**Ooohhhhh something to think about ... **

**Please Review.**

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	35. Giant Mistakes

**Hello everyone! Here's a much longer chapter then the others previously, but I've been sick so I've had no time. On the same note, I've been sick so I'm sorry if there's any typo's or spelling errors i've missed in editing. **

**Anyhoo, disclaimer still stands. **

**Enjoy!**

_Chapter 35: Giant Mistakes._

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"I can see a light at the end of the tunnel,"

"Oh, God. Please don't say that. When people say that it means we're all about to die soon." Mia groaned as she trudged up next to Kairi, attempting to keep up with Danniel ahead, who was sprinting down the passage.

Dan slowed down enough to shoot Mia a look over his shoulder before continuing his sprint.

Next to her, holding Mia's hand to keep her from falling behind, Kairi spoke up, "I think I see it, too. It's very dim but there."

The auburn haired girl almost face-planted. "Great! Not you too!"

"Emilia, shut up! We aren't going to die!"

Mia groaned again and finally gave in. If the guardian used her full name she knew he was at boiling point. But what _was_ that thing up a head? It was some sort of luminous glow, only soft but still there enough to see.

"Maybe it's a way out," Kairi offered. Her Keyblade was out just in case.

"Possibly." Dan shouted. He was suddenly a lot further away. "If it _is_ a way out then hazzah! If it isn't but still gets us out of this damned tunnel that's still perfect, because, really, anywhere is better than in this creepy place. Danger doesn't equal glowy light so I think we can rule out a big giant monster luring us into its lair."

"Oh, could you shut up!" Mia snapped and used all her force to plant her feet and skid to a stop, ultimately pulling Kairi with her, who was still holding on tight to her hand. Kairi almost lost her footing because of the impromptu stop, but once she did the princess stared up ahead and shouted out, "DAN!"

It took a few seconds for Kairi's call to reach him, but when it did Dan also skid to a stop with alarming grace, spun around and shouted back, "What?"

Mia and Kairi walked slowly up to the guardian, trying to catch their breath, while Mia explained,

"Think, Danny boy. What other _glowy light_ has caused up to run into it without thinking before?"

Both Dan and Kairi thought about it for a moment before the realisation dawned on them. "A Broken Kingdom door." Dan whispered to himself at first, then louder, "You think there is a Door back there?"

"I'm not sure, but if it is then we'll just run straight through it back to BK, and the whole trip into this B Grade Halloween Town would have been for nothing!"

The girls had finally caught up now, and the three simply stood there thinking for a moment. Mia had a point. If it was a Door then they all will just be right back where they started. In Broken Kingdom with no Gummi, no Riku, Donald and Goofy, and no Sora. This all would have been pointless. But if it wasn't a Door …

"What if it isn't?" Kairi suddenly broke the silence and piped in.

"Sorry, what?"

Kairi sighed and continued, "What if that light isn't a passage back into Broken Kingdom, but just an exit out of this cave or into some kind of room or something? What if – "

"There really is a monster luring us into its lair," Dan finished for her.

Kairi crossed her arms and glared at the man. "_You've_ surely dealt with worse." She growled.

Dan recoiled under her hard stare and the change of her tone. He straightened up and held his hands up in surrender. "No no, that's not what I meant, Kairi." Dan sighed. "Look, I'm just feeling a little out of it because we know nothing about this world. We seemed to have shrunk considerably upon arrival to "fit in" to a world that looks like it's been nuked three times over, there are these strange new Heartless with metal – freaking metal! – attached to them, and everything here is loads bigger than us. I don't even wanna think about what the "normal sized" monsters must look like. So I'm sorry if I sound a tad pessimistic and cynical, but I just want to grab Sora and get the hell out of this hell hole before we have the chance to find out."

When Dan finished his speech Kairi felt a little deflated. He sounded pretty sincere – possibly the most sincere she'd ever heard him sound. She'd meant to sigh in defeat, but what came out instead was, "You're scared, aren't you?"

Dan blanched and recoiled with wide eyes, clearly offended. "What? I'm not scared!"

Mia stifled a giggle. He glared at her. "Look, Halloween just never was one of my favourite holidays. There's all these freaks running around with chunks out of there bodies and fake blood on them … It's _gross_."

Kairi smiled at him and sighed. Dropping the subject she said, "Ok, fine. I get your point. The sooner we get out of here, the better." She looked at Mia, "You still think that's a Door down there?"

Mia squinted into the darkness to the glow at the far end of the tunnel, leaning forward to see better. "Nooo … It's way too dim now that I think about it," She straightened up and flicked her rope hair over her shoulder. "A Broken Kingdom door is always shining much more brilliantly than that."

They all turned and looked down the passage, keeping quiet for a moment. "But what do you think _is_ down there?" Dan asked, squinting also.

Kairi made forward, keyblade still in hand. "Only one way to find out."

The further they walked down the tunnel the narrower it became. Now walking in single file with Kairi in the lead, Dan behind her and Mia behind him, they all had their Keyblades out and eyes on full alert. The group were close enough now that they could see some sort of room that the glow was illuminating from. Well, at least Kairi and Dan could. Mia, on the other hand, was jumping up and down to try and see over Dan's head.

"_Duude_ … _Why_ are you so stinking tall?" She complained, only to be shushed.

"There is some sort of room in there." He explained.

Mia stopped jumping. "Really?" She frowned, thinking it was odd to have a room in the middle of a cave.

"Yeah. That's where the light is coming from. Kairi, can you see anything else?" Dan asked, squinting again. Everything was blurry for some reason. Maybe he needed glasses? But what can't be right; his eye sight was near perfect.

Kairi, instead of answering, suddenly stopped in her tracks and caused Dan and Mia to crash into her. "What is it?" Mia hissed from the back.

Kairi crouched low. "I can see something in there."

"Heartless?" Dan guessed.

Kairi shook her head.

"A big monster that looks like it'd like to eat us?" Mia piped in cheerfully.

"No …" Kairi took one more cautious step forward and stared as the others crouched down beside her. "None of those …"

Dan inclined his head and whispered, "I can see something, too."

Mia was craning her neck trying to look over his shoulder to see into the room, until Dan grabbed her around the waist and pulled her forward. Sure enough, there was definitely something in that room. Something that was hanging … in a cage. A giant _bird _cage.

"What the hey?" Mia whispered, confused. It wasn't exactly a monster, or a Heartless, but … a little doll. It had its back to them but the three could see it; the creature was just like them. Or at least the form they'd changed into.

Kairi placed a hand over her mouth in shock. "Oh my gosh," She whispered behind it, "it looks just like us."

"So there is more life on this planet." Mia whispered, just as astonished.

Dan pointed forward, "Guys, look. He's _inside_ the cage … I think he is trapped."

"How do you know it's a _he_?" Mia wondered.

Dan stared at the bald head and grimaced. "Lucky guess."

Kairi, Mia and Dan stared at the little Stitchpunk as he paced around the birdcage in an almost scared stance, staring at all corners of the room every now and then. He had his head down and was fiddling with his claw-like fingers. Even from that distance they could see the deep worried frown atop his brow.

"Guys, I think we should help him." Kairi announced and immediately began to rise from her crouch on the ground.

Dan stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Whoa, hey there now. This was just a rescue mission for Sora. We are not picking up stray pups along the way!"

Kairi spun around and stared into his green eyes, "Aren't _you_ the one who swore to protect people from Ghosts and Heartless and whatnot?"

"Don't use my words against me, little miss! And yes, I did swear to protect _people_ from _Ghosts_ and _Heartless_ and _whatnot_. But tell me, do you see any of those four here right now?" Dan shot back.

Kairi felt herself getting angry again. "Yes. I see someone in there that needs help!"

"Not a person, a weird doll thingy!"

"Who may have been turned into this form just like us!"

Dan snorted, "I highly doubt that."

Kairi closed her eyes and took a deep breath to prevent her from exploding on him. "Danniel." It was the first time she'd used his full name. It felt weird, like she was speaking to someone much younger than her. A naughty child …

"Dan." Kairi continued. "There is someone in that room that needs help, and could possibly be hurt. He is trapped in a _birdcage_, for crying out loud! Doesn't that spell prisoner to you?"

Dan frowned and stared at the Stitchpunk, muttering something like "Could be his home".

Kairi, having it by that point, tried a different tactic. "Don't _make_ me smack you." She growled, lifting her Keyblade up slightly.

The guardian finally groaned in defeat. "Fine. We'll help the creepy voodoo thing."

"You realise you're just insulting yourself, right?"

"Shut up."

Motioning for Kairi to climb out first, the group slowly crawled out of the tunnel and into the large room. Immediately backing themselves up against a wall, they began a slow trek up to the birdcage, Dan taking the lead again. Even with their minds set, it still didn't stop the trio from looking around in astonishment. And horror.

The glow seemed to illuminate from some sort of fluorescent lighting dangling from the ceiling, which was littered with chandeliers of old bits of machinery, both broken and still holding together, thousands of wires and old pipes handing dangerously low. The rest of the room wasn't any of a better sight. Glass bottles and shards of metal were strewn across the floor, and scattered everywhere were wheeled metal tables looking much like the floor. A thick sheet of dust covered everything like a blanket. The room was almost cylindrical, and looked like an old abandoned factory.

As if the scene couldn't get any more dismal, that wasn't the worst part. All along the floor, aligned up in rows were lines and lines of large missiles. Neither one of the three wanted to know if they were still active or not.

"This place just gets worse and worse the further in you travel!" Mia hissed behind her teeth.

They were now approaching the birdcage. Checking that the coast was clear one last time, the three quickly sprinted across the floor and ducked behind a wooden crate. Taking this refuge, Dan made a quick signal with his hand that he was going to move around to the front, and to follow him after he gives the signal. Kairi and Mia nodded and the guardian lifted himself from his crouch and hugged the wall all the way around to the front. There he could clearly see the Stitchpunk sitting up against the bars, elbow resting on his knee and chin in his hand.

Dan knocked three times on the crate before sneaking up quietly behind the Stitchpunk, waiting until he was standing directly behind before reaching out tapping his shoulder.

"Psst!"

The Stitchpunk jumped and cried out in shock, and Dan immediately cursed himself for not handling that better. The cage swung slightly as the doll jumped up from the floor in fear and spun around as fast as lightning, eyes as wide as they could be. It was obvious he'd expected the worst, but at seeing a fellow Stitchpunk, he seemed to calm down considerably.

"Hey, we're here to get you out." Dan said when the girls reached him.

The man in the cage eyed all three new arrivals curiously, like he'd seen nothing like them before.

"My, my …" He murmured. He had the voice of an old man. "What do we have here?" The Stitchpunk leaned forward. "I don't think I've ever met you three before … Oh, uh, erm, did you say "get me out"?"

Dan swung back on his heels, feeling slightly uncomfortable now. "Uhh, yeah. You are trapped … right?"

"Huh?" The man seemed to snap out of his trance. "Oh, yes! I am! But … how are you going to go about getting me out? I've been trying for hours now to escape with no prevail."

The Stitchpunk looked physically older then the three teenagers, and looked much more primitively made then they did, seeming to be made of patchwork bits of old leather and other kinds of faded material. An old shoelace tied his torso at his neck, giving him the look of wearing a bow tie. His feet and hands were made of small bolts and hinges, an old silver metal, and leather seemed to be fraying off of him. He had a metal plate atop his cranium also, and deep set, wide binocular eyes, blinking and staring at them curiously.

Dan stared up at the old man. "Don't worry, we have secret weapons." He said, holding up his keyblade.

Behind, Mia cleared her throat and pulled him back by the shoulder to whisper, "Dan. _Birdcage_."

He cursed himself. "Oh, right. No keyhole. Should have thought this plan through better."

Kairi almost slapped her forehead and stepped forward. "Don't worry, sir. We'll get you out. Where is the latch to this cage?" She asked him.

He pointed around the other side of the cage. "Over there. There's some sort of latch, but it is rusted. I've been trying all day to open it but alas … it won't budge."

Kairi stared to where he pointed and nodded. "Ok. We will see if we can get it." She began to lead Mia and Dan over before she stopped and turned back to the man.

"Um, excuse me, sir, but what is your name?" She asked kindly.

The old man smiled at Kairi warmly and responded. "Oh, my name is 2. And what might yours be?"

Kairi, Mia and Dan were all taken aback by the name, or rather, _number_. But nonetheless, Mia smiled back just as warmly and said. "I'm Mia, and this is Kairi and Dan. Nice to meet you, 2."

2 frowned and stared at them curiously. "Mia? Kairi? Dan? Why, those are unusual names if I've ever heard them."

"Uh huh," They said and decided it better to drop the subject.

Kairi was the first to reach the latch of the cage and sure enough, it was rusted. Like, never seen polish in 50 years, rusted. Kairi inwardly groaned. This was going to be a little harder then she'd first anticipated. Dismissing her keyblade she placed both hands around the latch and turned to Mia and Dan when they approached.

"Ok, this is gonna be tricky so I'll need your help here. Mia, grab my waist and Dan, you grab Mia's. Together on the count of three we'll all pull, ok?"

The two nodded, dismissed their weapons and immediately moved into position. Once they all had a strong lock on each other, they nodded to Kairi who began counting.

"One … two … _three!_" Dan pulled Mia back who pulled Kairi back who heaved hard on the latch. It gave a soft _screech_ but otherwise didn't budge. "Ok, again." The three repeated the process with the same results. "One more time!"

Still the latch didn't move an inch.

The three groaned and gave in, hunching over in defeat.

"Now what?" Dan asked.

Kairi closed her eyes and tried to think. She didn't think it would be this hard, but, in hindsight, the state of the rest of the room should have given her some indication of how hard this would be. If only they had some giant magnet …

Kairi's head snapped up. _Boy am I stupid or what … _

Her mind raced back to those training sessions with Sora and Riku, and this one particular spell they'd shown her that worked like a magnet.

Kairi smiled as she summoned her Keyblade back. "I have an idea."

When Mia asked her what it was all she told them to do was stand back. Once they did, Kairi turned to the latch and pointed the nose of her blade straight at it. "_Magnet!_"

A silver-grey blur shot at the cage and caught on to the latch. Kairi let the size grow for a moment before jumping back and swinging her Keyblade in the air and over her shoulder. The rusted latch of the birdcage gave a loud scream in protect before flying open.

Kairi smiled brightly to herself as the spell dissipated.

Behind, Mia uttered a surprised, "Wow."

Kairi turned to them, her smile growing. They were both staring at the cage and the latch with a shocked expression. "Impressed?"

"No," Dan answered, expression unchanging. "Just can't believe _we_ didn't think of that."

The Princess of Heart's smile immediately dropped and was replaced by a frown. "Oh, whatever." _One_ day she'll find a way to impress the two future Keybladers.

Kairi ran over to the cage and pulled it open. "2, we got it open! Come on,"

2 was standing exactly where they'd left him, but he wasn't looking at them, but at something in the distance. "It's too late."

"What? What are you talking about? 2, come on! Get out of there!" Kairi coaxed.

2 pointed to something across the room. "Look! The Beast is awake!" Now he moved, but not toward the door, but to the other end of the cage, as far away from where he was pointing as possible.

"The Beast?" Mia asked as the trio slowly turned around to stare in horror at this giant monster at the far end of the room. The thing seemed to have entered from an arch they hadn't even noticed, and it was the most horrible thing they'd ever seen.

The Cat Beast was four times their size at least, maybe more. It had a face constructed of metal to resemble the skull of a cat, with many more mechanical limbs and spikes sticking out of its body. Paws made of spikes and other deadly looking machinery was clawing at the floor under it, angry for having its lair invaded. The claws were not its most intimidating feature, but the bright red light shining blindingly out of its eye.

Dan stepped in front of the two girls as they backed away. "What the _hell_ is that thing?" He hissed behind his teeth.

The three barely had time to ready their weapons before the Cat Beast opened its jaw wide and let out the loudest, most blood curling roar ever and charged toward the three. Mia, Kairi and Dan leaped out of the way and dashed over to the far end of the room as fast as their new legs could carry them. The Beast slid on the floor and almost crashed into the wall, but was able to quickly recover. Spinning around on its hind legs the giant cat chased after the three Stitchpunks hot on their heels, sliding across the floor with ease.

The three leaped behind a bench just as the Beast pounced, missing them by a hair and snapping its sharp, elongated teeth ferociously. Mia cried out as one of the Beast's teeth snapped at her leg, backing into Kairi and Dan. The giant cat was ramming its head into the bench like a bull, and with each horrific crash the metal of the bench bent more and more in. The three backed themselves against the wall.

"What do we do?" Kairi shouted fearfully over the Cat Beast's angry roars. She almost couldn't hear her heart pulsing in her ears.

"We need a plan!" Dan shouted back. "Some way to surprise this thing so that we can hit it from behind!"

"Right, but how do we do that?" Mia asked, "It's way bigger than us!"

Dan didn't respond and looked around, trying to think. Then he spotted it. "There!" He shouted and ran inside the bench. There was some kind of old cloth on the bottom shelf and some scrap pieces of metal. "If we can trick the Beast into thinking this" – he grabbed the cloth and a piece of metal – "is one of us, then we might be able to run over to the other side of the room and hit it from behind!"

"You're a genius!" Kairi cried and she and Mia dashed over to help. They each grabbed a corner of the cloth and began tying a piece of metal to it. After a couple minutes they had something that remotely resembled a head with a torso, arms and legs with metal hands and feet. Without stopping to check their handy work, the three swung the doll over to the corner of the bench and waited for the Beast to find it.

Once it did, the Cat Beast growled and closed its metal teeth around a leg lifting it into the air and began shaking it like a toy. Here the three made their move and dashed over to the other side of the room behind a work desk and box just as the giant cat realised that it had been fooled. Kairi, Mia and Dan took advantage of its momentary surprise by running at it from behind. Dan moved over to its leg and began firing spells at the Beast. Kairi moved around to the paw and began doing the same while Mia leaped into the air and attacked the head with her Keyblade.

Landing on its back she began slashing at it with her Keyblade. The giant cat roared in pain when Mia's blade sunk into its metal flesh, just as Dan shot a _Firaga_ spell at its leg and Kairi a _Mega Blizzard_ at the other. The three were obviously using the old I-hit-him-high-you-hit-him-low technique. The Beast was getting angry at this point and spun around on its hind legs and slashed its sharp claws at the two on the ground while Mia held on tight. Dan was able to jump out of the way, but Kairi wasn't so lucky. The Can Beast's paw hit her square in the stomach, winding her and sending her halfway across the room in the process, where she landed hard and painfully on the ground and crashed into a heap of junk and glass bottles.

"Kairi!" Mia shouted fearfully and began slashing at the neck of the Beast, who'd just remembered she was there. Dan dashed over to Kairi as fast as he could and helped her up. She had her eyes closed in pain and she shoulder was torn.

"Hold on," He soothed and pointed his keyblade at her, sending a warm green light over her whole body. The creamy canvas at the shoulder mended together.

Kairi rose to her feet. "Thank you. Oh no, Mia!"

Dan shot around instantly and his eyes widened in horror as the Beast pounced around in the air, roaring and screaming, arms and claws flailing, teeth snapping as it tried to knock the girl off of its neck. He sprinted over to the giant cat, Kairi close at his heels, and they jumped on it the same manner as Mia had, landing on the shoulder. The Beast was caught by surprise again, but the three gave it no time to recover before they began slashing and firing spell upon spell at it.

It was now when the Beast had finally had it. Lifting itself up on its hind legs like a cat ready to pounce on a bird it went absolutely mad. Shaking its whole body side to side like a feral beast, roaring and screaming and hissing this strange mechanical sound, claws swiping at anything it could. It was shaking so hard that Kairi, Mia and Dan began to lose their grip.

Dan bared his teeth as he fought to hold on, unfortunately causing him to lose hold of his Keyblade. He watched in a dizzy blur as the dark blue weapon fell to the ground. Great. Just great.

"Sora, I swear if we die here I'm gonna kill you!" Was the last thing he could manage before something smashed into the side of his head, and everything went black.

**ooooooooooooooooo**

"_Da … Ddd … n …Dan … eey … Danny … Danny? Danny!_"

Dan slowly opened his eyes to the brightest light he'd ever seen. Something was ringing in the distance, a sort of bell-like chiming and he was aware of the feeling in the side of his head. An excruciating, searing pain stabbing though his brain like a thousand long, fine swords.

Someone was also calling his name; that much was clear. He would have squinted into the bright light if his head wasn't in so much pain. _Not just my head …_ He realised regretfully, but his whole right arm and ankle were also unmovable.

Turning his head to the side as carefully as he could without killing himself, Dan now found himself staring up at Mia's face. She looked so relieved it almost took his breath away.

Mia was kneeling next to where he lay on the ground, a hand resting softly on his uninjured arm. "Oh, thank goodness." She sighed. Music to his ears. "We got scared when you didn't wake up after an hour. You've been unconscious for almost three, Dan. How are you feeling? How's your leg and arm? Does your head hurt? Are you ok?"

Danniel meant to answer her questions, but the light was too bright and his head hurt too much, so instead what came out was, "You're beautiful."

Mia recoiled slightly and raised her eyebrows in shock. She seemed to look more worried now than before. "Wow," She said flatly. "That thing hit you harder than we thought."

On the other side of him came a soft laugh. One that belonged to an old man laughing at his grandchildren's antics. Dan turned his head again to see 2 crouching in the same position as Mia, with Kairi next to him.

"Oh, don't worry, my dear. He'll be just fine – only a little smacked around, that's all." 2 replied cheerfully.

Dan groaned and closed his eyes, the light blaring too much for him. "Where are we?" He managed.

"Inside the birdcage." He heard Kairi reply. "After the Cat Beast knocked you out it took all of us and threw us in here with 2, and then shut the cage door. I hate to say it but that monster is far more intelligent than we'd first anticipated."

Dan groaned again. "No sign of what's-his-face?"

"Sora?" Kairi answered. "None."

"Actually I meant God. I feel like I've just died."

Mia smiled softly and patted his cheek. He didn't care that it hurt. Lifting his head up Dan stared ahead and looked down … to see his torso completely open.

They were doing an autopsy on him!

Dan cried out jolted up from the ground, the bells immediately growing louder. "What the hell?"

Mia and Kairi reached out to calm him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa there! It's ok, Dan! 2 just needed to check your insides for any damage."

He didn't want to tell her how completely _wrong_ that sounded.

Together Mia, Kairi and 2 helped pull Dan into a sitting position. "Ok, Emilia. In answer to your questions; I feel like utter crap, my ankle feels dislocated, my arm feels like I don't even _have_ one anymore, my head feels like it's about to explode – and _what_ is that ringing?"

"There's no ringing, Danny. That's your concussion."

"… Oh." He suddenly remembered. "Wait, my Keyblade. Didn't I drop it?"

Mia nodded and turned to look over her shoulder, "Yeah. It is still lying on the floor. Since you got knocked unconscious it couldn't automatically come back to you."

Dan nodded. Then regretted it. "Can't either of you heal me, or something?"

Kairi shook her head, "We'd love to but we can't risk alarming the Cat Beast and bringing on another wave. We need to wait until it leaves first."

"You mean like now?" Dan asked gesturing toward the giant Cat Beast that just exited through the archway if first came though.

The two girls stared at it in shock but wasted no time in taking out their Keyblades and firing a cure spell each on Dan. After the green wash disappeared and all his muscles and limbs sang with relief, the ringing stopped and the light considerably dimmed. The guardian reached out and called his Keyblade back to him finally, sighing in relief.

"Amazing …" Beside him 2 muttered in awe, staring at Dan's blade. "What are these things?"

"Er … Keyblades." Dan replied, sitting up straighter.

2 reached out carefully. "May I?"

Dan simply nodded and slowly handed his Keyblade to 2, making sure the man had both hands secured around it before letting go.

2 stared at the dark blue instrument like it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. Dan didn't blame him, after all he'd reacted the very same way when he was 14-years-old and the thing magically appeared in his hand one day. It was hard not to be mesmerised by it.

A black leather handle attached to a metallic blue body. Thin silver chains entwined themselves around the body and twisted themselves all the way to the blade of the weapon, a curved blade much like that or a machete but finer and more curved, thickening as it went into the Keyblade. The rim of the blade was silver, slowly morphing into purple that changed to blue and then to back the thicker it became. On the opposite side of the blade was a line of the brightest and purest sapphires you'd ever see, growing in size around the middle of the line then thinning down again. On the end of the handle was a small black padlock. The name_ Treasure Captor_ flashed into Dan's head the moment it first appeared.

2 stared at the Keyblade with wide eyes, turning it over and over. "Magnificent," He just kept spurting out adjectives. Just as his hand was about to slide over the blade Dan stopped him,

"Watch it!" he warned and 2 recoiled. "It's pretty sharp."

2 smiled in thanks. He looked the blade over for a few more minutes, spurting out random facts before it magically dissolved into white sparks and the old man jumped back in shock.

The guardian winced. He'd forgotten to warn him about that. "Sorry. It doesn't like to be handled by someone else for too long."

"It has a mind of its own?" 2 asked in wonder.

Dan shrugged. "I guess they all do."

Suddenly a noise caused them to freeze in their places and look toward the arch. "It's coming back!" Kairi whispered behind her teeth. They all kept their stances, hearts beating in their ears, hoping and praying that the giant cat would continue paying them no mind when they realised that the sounds they were hearing wasn't coming from the archway the Beast exited out of, but from the tunnel the three teenagers had entered through.

"Wait a minute." Mia held a hand up. "That is _not_ the cat."

All four of them stared across the room, waiting for whomever or _what_ever it was approaching to show themselves when suddenly they saw …

"Sora!" Kairi whispered as loudly as she could and dashed over to the other side of the cage. He seemed to be travelling with two other little Stitchpunks considerably younger than 2, and her exclamation had alerted the three.

Sora stared to where she was standing in shock, moments before a wide smile spread over his face. "Kairi! Mia! Dan!" He called back before rushing over, quietly because they could see the Cat Beast's back in the archway.

The two he was traveling with simultaneously shouted out, "2!" and rushed over as well.

When Sora reached Kairi she began to say something but he immediately warned her to be quiet, pointing over to the Beast in the archway, digging through some scrap metal. Kairi's eyes widened and she nodded.

"I'm so glad I found you." Sora whispered excitedly.

Mia and Dan had just now joined them. "_You_ found _us_?" Mia asked. "We're the ones who jumped through that Door to find you!"

2 had now run up to the side of the cage next to them, where Sora's friends were. "5! 9!"

Kairi stared at them funny and turned to Sora, "Are all the natives here named after numbers?"

Sora shot her a you-have-no-idea look and nodded.

Mia continued from where she left off, "Where did you get dropped off anyway?"

Sora threw his thumb over his shoulder, "All the way back in town. What about you guys?"

"In the middle of the _freakin' dessert_!" Dan hissed frustratingly. "How is it you end up in town and we get thrown out on our butts in the middle of nowhere?"

Sora shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe – whoa baldy!" Sora exclaimed, finally noticing Dan's appearance. "What happened to _you? _Had an argument with the razor?" He asked, trying to hold back laughter.

Dan glared and leaned up against the bars. "You know eventually we're getting out of here."

"Speaking of which," The younger of the two Stitchpunks suddenly piped in, "We need to pry open these bars."

Sora, 9 and 5 moved in front of 2 and began pulling on the bars … and actually managed to pry them open. Apparently the bars were much weaker than the handle.

Dan fought the temptation to slap his forehead. "Why didn't we think of _that_?"

The bars were wide enough now for the four to climb out of the cage. Gesturing for 2 to go first, Mia pushed Kairi in front of her, who Sora helped descend from the cage, then helped Mia climb down before Dan jumped out last.

As soon as they were out Kairi threw her arms around Sora's neck. Catching him off guard, Sora was momentarily shocked before recovering and hugging her back, his heart swelling at the familiarity of Kairi. He didn't realise how much he'd missed her until now.

Once the hug was over, Kairi frowned and slapped Sora upside the head.

"Ow!" Sora winced and rubbed the back of his head. "What was that for?"

"For running away, you silly bum." She replied, placing her hands on her hips.

"Oh, right. I guess I deserved that then – "

Suddenly a strong red light shined brightly over the group of seven's heads, instantly silencing Sora. All looked upward slowly to see the great giant cat looming over them menacingly, teeth bared. It then let out another one of its ear splitting roars, causing the group to run away frantically.

The four teenagers pulled out their Keyblades and ran with the three terrified Stitchpunks.

"We have to protect 2, 5 and 9!" Sora shouted as they ran, the Beast chasing after them. "Dan stay with 2, Mia with 5 and Kairi with me and 9! This time everyone _stay together!_"

The three nodded and ran over to follow their orders. Kairi, Sora and 9 ran over to the corner of the room, where the Cat Beast had just cornered them. All three simultaneously swiped the Beast with their weapons, 9 with a metal blade he'd found along the way to the room. The cat recoiled and the three used this chance to get away.

A head of them they found a hill of scrap metal and all began to climb. Sora made a signal for the other four to follow. On the way up 9's foot slipped on some debris, but Sora and Kairi managed to catch him in time.

"Thank you," He said.

5 pulled a crossbow out of his bag and pointed it at the Cat Beast. "This should help!" He shouted before shooting the monster in the eye, shattering it and immediately blinding it.

The beast roared in pain and the group used this opportunity to climb onto a table. They raced across it onto a higher shelf of debris and machinery, when suddenly their path was blocked by none other than the Cat Beast. Sora looked behind them, at the shelf of debris, and how they'll never get across it.

They were trapped.

Just as they were all thinking they were doomed, something in the distance alerted them. Some sort of rhythmic _whoosh_ing sound was now echoing around the factory room, moments before something came flying through the distance and pierced itself into the giant cat's back, snaring it. It was some sort of arrow with a rope attached to it and weights on either end. The group followed the rope over to the high window at the top of the room, where someone stood that seemed to be half Stitchpunk, half bird.

None had time to question this sudden appearance of the stranger, and charged head on at the beast. 5 shot his crossbow at the Beast's foot, backing it into some machinery, while Dan and Mia fired spells at it. Sora, Kairi and 9 jumped over to another platform and began luring the cat in different directions, trying to confuse it and get it further tangled up in the debris. The Beast kept snapping at all of them, ultimately tripping 9 over some wires.

The Stitchpunk at the top of the room leapt through the air with alarming elegance, landing square on the Beast's back and pushing its spear further into it. The cat roared again, and just when Mia, Kairi and Dan were expecting it to go crazy like it did before, the giant beast suddenly went slack. The Stitchpunk leaped onto the Beast's neck and brought the full weight of the spear down upon it. The Cat Beast twitched and everyone watched in awe when the head of the monster finally gave and crashed to the ground, its body in the other direction.

Everyone stood heaving for a moment, as the newcomer leapt off the back of the monster and landed gracefully on the floor. Everyone could see them fully now, and the bird skull on its head was actually a helmet of some sort, which it lifted up to reveal a very female looking Stitchpunk, smiling cheekily at them all. She had creamy skin with buttons down her torso and brown clawed hands and feet. The bird skull atop her head had two feathers hanging on either side, giving her the illusion of having earrings.

Just as Sora and the others were wondering who she was, behind them 5 and 2 shouted excitedly, "7!"

5 was the first to reach her, and as soon as he did he threw his arms around the girl. She was surprised at first but then quickly returned the hug just as warmly. 2 reached them and smiled widely at both, just as 5 and 7 had broken from their embrace.

Sora turned around to look at 9, who were still on the ground and just beginning to lift himself up. 9 was staring at the newcomer with a slight smile on his face.

Sora kept staring at him and smiled to himself. _I've seen _that_ look before …_

"You were lost –" 2 was saying.

"But you came back!" 5 shouted happily.

7 laughed softly, "I never left." She looked to 5. "_You_ finally decided to join the fight."

5 looked to the ground, embarrassed, as 7 reached into her bag and pulled a familiar piece of parchment out. "I believe this belongs to you," She said, handing it to 5.

9 now walked over to the three and handed 7 her shield that she had lost during the fight back. As she took it she looked 9 over and turned to 5, "I think I know why."

5 and 2 smiled proudly and nudged 9 in the back. 7 chuckled and nodded in approval. "About time we got another fighter."

9 smiled.

7 then turned to the four teenagers and looked them over, taking in their young appearances. "Now who's this?"

Sora stepped forward. "I'm Sora and this is Kairi, Dan and Mia. Erm, nice to meet you, ma'am."

7 smiled and stepped forward. "I'm 7. Nice to meet all of you, too." She said, shaking all of their hands.

Sora noticed that, like 9, she made no comment on how "strange" their names were. After the introductions were done, all eight turned to look at the fallen Cat Beast lying on the ground. 2 walked up to it and began poking at it with his foot.

"Rusty … Hacked together … Shoddy piece of scrap," 2 swung his foot back and kicked the beast in the side, but ended up stubbing his toe. "Ouch!" He winced jumping up and down and clutching his foot.

5 and 7 chuckled and moved toward 2, supporting him on either side.

"Come on," Dan said, moving forward. "Let's get out of here."

9 hung back after everyone began moving toward the exit, his curious side shining up through the cracks. As the little Stitchpunk further assessed the machine, he noticed something gleaming off the sun at the corner of his eye and turned to see the Talisman lying on the ground.

It must have fallen out during the fight. Moving to pick it up, 9 looked the strange symbols over again, before noticing at the far corner of the room a giant machine. Running to it quickly, 9 inspected the new contraption to find a small sphere cut out in the middle. 9 frowned but looked more closely, and sure enough, there were the same exact symbols on the machine as there were on the talisman.

9, surprised, blurted out "Look!".

Everyone turned around at his exclamation to see what he was standing in front of. At this discovery, 2's eyes widened in horror and he immediately rushed forward as fast as he could. "No, stop! Get away from there!"

But it was too late. 9 had already lifted the Talisman over to the machine and pressed it into the hole, which it fit into like a jigsaw puzzle.

Everything was quiet for a moment, and 9 wondered what all the fuss was about when suddenly a horrible feeling shuddered though him and 9 felt his whole body go cold and stiff, just as the earth began to violently shake.

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**Wow this thing took a lot out of me. I'm out of practice at writing long chapters. **

**I _may_ draw the gang in Stitchpunk form and post it on DeviantART. We'll see. **

**YAY 7! I love her. Out of all the characters in this movie, I think she's my favorite after 9. **

**Anyhoo, Please Review.**

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	36. Technology of the Corrupted

_Short chappie, but eh. I had some free time on my hands ... I don't think I'm too happy with this one._

**EDIT: I'm on holidays now! Holidays, BABY! Goodbye year 11, hello year 12!**

**... It's kind of depressing when you think about it. :(**

**But anyway, this means that I'll have more time to write, so expect more frequant chapters and more drawings to come your way. I haven't thanked reviewers in a while so I'll do that: thank you all who review or have ever reviewed this story soooooooooooooooooooo much! It really means alot to me to hear your feed back and enthusiasum, and I'm not just saying that – I really mean it.**

**Now, on with the story, Enjoy!**

_Chapter 36: Technology of the Corrupted_

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2 shoved 9 aside much harder than he initially intended, ultimately causing him to lose his balance and fall to the ground. The tremors from the ground were escalating in intensity, and the Stitchpunks felt their balance shaking. 2 ran up to the machine, what 9 didn't realise was something monstrous in size and shrouded with a dirty sheet that once would have been white. Sora, standing some ways away with 5, 7, Kairi, Mia and Dan, guessed that whatever it was probably would have been at least a dozen or even two dozen times bigger than him if he were in his normal form.

"Don't!" he was still warning 9, even though it was too late. He then resulted in trying to pry the talisman out of the machine. "We don't know what it is …"

The device in the machine had begun to glow now, a bright, eerie green glow that looked like it was sucking all of the natural and fluorescent light out of the room just to increase its intensity.

9 noticed that something under the sheet began to twitch and shake mechanically. He was just about to shout a warning to 2 when suddenly the light became too much to bare and exploded out of the talisman, right into 2. The older Stitchpunk was knocked back in the air, but did not fall to the ground. Instead, he seemed to hover there in mid-air as the green light engulfed him. The light forced itself into 2's mouth, pushing all the air out of his lungs, and into both his eyes, so that all 9 or anyone else could see were three bight beams of electric light shooting into something brown and convulsing.

9 watched in horror as 2 floated in the air, his blood curling scream almost muffled by the roar of the machine. Behind he could just hear 5's cry of "NO!" before everything went silent and the air in the room caught still. The green light just vanished and 2 was released, his limp body falling to the ground inches from 9's feet. 5 stopped fighting against Sora's hold on him and went completely still. His head was throbbing and his eyes were wide and unblinking, but he did not break Sora's hold and dash up to the machine like he was trying to do just moments earlier, but held on tighter to stop himself from falling to the ground.

2's lifeless body lay there at 9's feet, his binocular eyes gone, burnt out of his skull, and his mouth was open wide in a silent scream. Smoke rose from all three empty holes. This time, 9 did scream.

Out of everyone in the room who stared in shock, pain and disbelief at the scene before them, Sora, of all people, was the first to notice the shaking of the ground had not stopped.

After handing 5 to 7 Sora rushed up to the little Stitchpunk on the ground as fast as he could and grabbed a hold of his shoulders. 2's body almost made him stop running.

"We have to get out of here!" The tremors were increasing greatly by this point, and Sora almost lost his balance there as he leaned down to 9.

9 didn't look like he'd heard Sora, but kept staring with wide eyes at 2.

Sora tried again and lifted 9 to his feet. "9! Come on, we have to leave. Now!"

In the back 5 stuttered, "But … 2 … what about – "

7 Pulled 5 back some ways, as the three teenagers had gotten the message and began retreating. "He's right. It's not safe here – something is happening with that thing!" 7 shouted, pointing at the huge machine. "9! Get up!"

7's snap seemed to finally knock 9 out of his trance and look at Sora in fear. The Keyblade Master tugged hard on 9's arm, "We have to leave … I'm sorry," He added, gesturing to 2. 9 was about to comment that he shouldn't be apologising to _him _when suddenly the earth gave the most violent shake yet and threw both boys off of their feet.

The sheet had begun to fall off whatever was under it, exposing the most horrible looking machine Sora had ever seen. It had a large red "eye", just like the Cat Beast's, in the centre of something that horribly resembled a silver brain. Coming out in hundreds all around were huge mechanical arms, ending in pincers at the ends. At the back of the brain was a long and thick wiring of some sort, tethering it to the back of the factory.

Sora and 9 were frozen stiff in shock, horror and awe all together, staring as the machine began to move. This sent them back to reality as the machine's red light passed over the two Stitchpunks, blinding them for a moment as one of its arms shot forward and tried to grab them.

They both jumped out of the way just in time and scurried along the floor, trying to flee. 9 regained his footing first and, pulling Sora up beside him, they bolted as fast as they could away from the machine's arms and out the door to the factory, almost ploughing into 7 and 5 as they stood around the corner, watching with the same expressions Sora and 9 had previously, with Kairi, Mia and Dan trying to pull them away.

Together the group of seven made their escape, with the machine, using its many arms as legs, hot on their heels. Kairi was able to jump out of the way before it closed its pincers around her, and a second later the same thing happened to Mia. Dan, a much faster runner, grabbed both girls arms and pushed them forward through the hole they'd all come through. They barrelled into the hole, forgetting the need for single file but managed to tumble out anyway.

The Machine tried to chase them still, but was not able to fit through the hole. As the seven made a wild dash through the dark passage way Sora, still holding on tight to 9, ran to the front of the madness and decided to lead the group a different way out.

"This way!" Pulling 9 with him Sora suddenly pivoted to the right and almost caused everyone to fall over each other, leading them down another passage Kairi, Mia and Dan hadn't even realised was there. Echoing down the passage everyone could hear the machine rustling around in the factory room, knocking things over and throwing them across the room, angry that its victims had gotten away.

Behind 7 shouted, "How did you know about this way?"

Sora panted but answered anyway, "I saw it on the way here. I can't believe neither of you did – it's got this huge drawing of the Cat Beast _right there!_"

"And we're going down this way why?" Mia asked through deep breaths. Dan was still holding on to both of the girls and 7 still with 5.

Sora didn't answer right away. "Because if we just ran out the way we all came through it would be too obvious. There we're two exits in that place, one big enough for that thing to go through. It would have been right at our doorstep waiting for us to come barrelling out of the trench!"

"He's right!" Dan shouted in agreement. "We were watching when it was trying to catch you and 9. Instead of just chasing after you like anything else, it lifted an arm up and brought it down to where you were _going_ to be, trying to black your path! _And_ it was watching us with that red laser eye, waiting, trying to think up a plan before it started running! I'd hate to say it, but that machine is intelligent, just like the Cat Beast was. Maybe even more so!"

Kairi looked at him before saying, "I read somewhere that machines and computers are only as intelligent as the humans who programmed them!"

"That is true," Dan agreed, "but give a machine too much free will and ability to think on its own and eventually that intelligence will grow, and grow, and grow to the point where it's a completely different machine from what you built. It _also_ allows others to corrupt it! Create a peace keeper one month and the next you'll have a weapon of mass destruction –"

"STOP!"

Everybody dug their heels into the dirt on the account of 9's exclamation. The group didn't realise but whist running and simultaneously listening to Dan's words they had ran out of the tunnel and out into the ruins of an old battle site.

They were in an old building, half the wall to their left gone with an aeroplane propeller lodged into the wall in front. They were standing on a wooden landing, the stairs gone, with a big gap between them and the next landing.

Sora stared down at the hole in dismay.

"How do we get across?" 5 asked, leaning over 9's shoulder to look.

7 moved forward and took her spear out of her bag. reaching into 5' and taking out his cross bow she tied her spear to a rope, and then to the bow. "I have an idea." She said, moving in front of the group and aiming. The spear shot across the room like lightning, lodging itself into the wall.

"There is no way that'll be able to take all seven of us." Sora informed her.

Dan moved forward then and got out his keyblade. "Got another one of those ropes?" He asked 7, who nodded and handed him one. Dan tied the rope around the handle of his keyblade then sent it across the same way with 5's bow. "Alright, 9 and 5 you hold on to 7. Sora, Kairi, Mia; grab on to me."

The Stitchpunks nodded and did as they were told, and Kairi and Sora both grabbed on to either side of Dan. Mia, with nowhere else to go climbed on his back and held on for dear life.

"On three," 7 said as they all moved into position.

"Wait, wait, wait!" 5 suddenly shouted, "We're going to _swing_ across?"

"What did you think was gonna happen, Phantom of the Opera?" Dan snapped dryly. "On three," He agreed.

7 and Dan silently counted before giving the signal and jumping off the platform. Together they all swung across at their own speeds, sinking dramatically in the middle and giving everyone a rush. Finally, they were at the other side of the building, but instead of landing on the other side of the landing, they swung up more than they planned and ended up in a heap of tangled limbs on a conveyer belt.

Mia and Dan, at the bottom of the heap, groaned as they tried to push everyone off of them and pull themselves out.

Sora panted. "That was fun, eh hehe …" He laughed nervously as he tried to slow his heart that was now pumping dangerously fast.

Kairi smiled at his attempt to lift the mood and helped Mia to her feet. "Let's just get out of here."

Everyone nodded and began walking along the conveyor belt, not knowing where it would take them. After some time of walking, an eerie deep chain-like howl echoed down the passage along with the horrible sound of pincers snapping angrily. They all stopped in their tracks.

"That's it," Sora clapped twice. "Everybody out now. Go, GO!"

The howling was becoming louder as the group once again broke into a run after all of a one minute rest. Suddenly the belt declined rapidly, turning into a slide. Sora, 9, Kairi, Mia, Dan, 7 and 5 all shouted as they fell and crashed hard to the ground.

Sora lifted himself up and spat dirt out of his mouth before ordering, "Everybody hide!"

The group scattered. 7 and 5 ran behind a pile of debris, Mia, Kairi and Dan just next to them inside an old tin can, and Sora pulled 9 with him behind a rusted and bent car door.

9 gasped when long metallic arms appeared around the corner, and Sora quickly slapped a hand over the Stitchpunk's mouth. The machine's red eye scanned the area, pausing eerily over where Sora and 9 were hovelled. They pulled their knees into their chest and 9 wrapped his arms around Sora, pulling him further out of sight. With all the adrenaline of the chase, Sora didn't realise how scared he actually _was_ of this gigantic monster finding them, and what it would do once it did. If it was that difficult to defeat the Cat Beast, he couldn't imagine what it would take to take down _that_ thing.

The red light lingered and Sora pulled 9 closer to him. He figured they must look like little kids playing a game of hide and seek, scarred to be found. The machine's eye scanned the area once more before guessing its prey was nowhere in sight, and moving off. Sora and 9 held on to each other until the sound of the pincers clapping together could no longer he heard before taking a breath of relief. Sora took his hand off of 9's mouth and together they shakily crawled out of the hole to around where the others were.

What they found then they got there was a panic and grief stricken 5, sitting on the ground and hugging his knees,

"I knew we shouldn't have come …" He was saying. "Oh, 2 … My poor old friend!" Suddenly a burst of strength hit him and he shot up from the ground and turned on 9, grasping his shoulders and glaring in anger. "Why? _Why did you do that?_"

9 recoiled under 5's surprisingly strong grasp and poison laced voice. "I – I don't know. I didn't know … I'm sorry …" The pain was clear on his voice. 9 looked just as devastated as 5 and 7.

They stared at each other for a moment longer before 5 let go and sank back to the ground, losing all his strength.

Kairi looked back toward the factory, the three tall chimneys. "What _was_ that thing?"

Before anyone could answer a loud whirring sound that seemed to be coming from the machinery inside, and what sounded like the conveyer belt activating. They all stared at each other in dread.

"Can't we catch a break?" Dan groaned.

9 looked up, "What is it doing now?"

Below, 5 shock his head miserably.

7 stared at each of them. She seemed to be the least scarred out of all of them. With a sigh, she reached out and grabbed 5's arm, lifting him to his feet. Turning around she caught 9's eye and the two stared at each other in silence for a moment before she turned away and began walking south.

"Come on," She called softly. "I know somewhere safe we can go."

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**Oh snap, badly written chace scene! **

**Chapter 37 is already a quarter written, so hopefully in the next few days it should be up. **

**I also got around to drawing the gang in Stitchpunk form, so to view just copy/paste the URL down the bottom (without the spaces between the dots and the forward slashes). If the link doesn't work just tell me and I'll try and fix it.**

**http:/ / honeydripp . deviantart . com/art/KH-Stitchpunk-Designs-259746963**

**Please Review.**

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	37. Haven

**Another long chappie for you. **

**Enjoy!**

_Chapter 37: Haven_

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They walked on for what seemed like hours to Sora. All he could think about was finding a nice soft bed, or piece of rubble, whichever he came across first, and sleep. He could feel his eyes getting heavier and heavier, and his legs were straining more than usual. That whole chase scene with the giant killer machine stripped Sora of whatever strength and energy he had left, and since he hadn't gotten any sleep the night before, that wasn't very good. That's what he needed now: sleep. Let the big bad wolf come and carry him away to his lair, torture him with ghosts or bake him into one of grandma's cookies – he didn't care.

But sleep just made Sora think of Roxas, who still wasn't answering when he called.

But thinking of his Nobody made things worse, so he put Roxas as far from his mind as possible (metaphorically, of course). It probably wasn't the best thing to do, but 7 was leading them on the longest goose chase of their lives, that Sora just didn't want to _care_ anymore. Care about how much he'd upset Roxas, how much he'd upset Kairi and Mia and even Dan by running away and landing them in this horrible place. He didn't want to care that he felt bad for never wanting to have come through and left 9 and the others to handle the monsters by themselves. He didn't want to care about where Riku, Donald and Goofy were, if King Mickey was looking for them, how many people were worried, and he really didn't want to care … what Stefan must be going through –

Wait. What?

Sora broke out of his train of thoughts and blinked in confusion. _I think I just fell asleep while walking there … Where the heck did _that_ thought come from … Who …_

Sora shook his head, his copper spikes swaying slightly. Sleep!

It was getting late now and the Sun had just set. He hoped that whatever haven 7 was leading them to be close. Before, while walking, when Sora had just begun to wonder where the Heartless were and why they hadn't bothered them in all of … _one_ _hour_, a group of the same spider half-machines bombarded them whist turning a corner. The four teenagers were surprised to find just how much of a strong fighter 7 was. As if her battle with the Cat Beats wasn't proof enough for them, the way she jumped and dodged and leaped and sliced through the Heartless with her spear was so effortless you'd think she had been doing it her whole life.

Then Sora took some time to think about it and realised she _has_ been fighting her whole life.

This went on for a half hour or so more, with Sora's thoughts taking a turn from crazy, then to strange and spontaneous down to just plain ridiculous, when finally at long last a tall structure began to materialise in the distance.

They were approaching a mansion of some sort, with more statues aligning the path like back at the Fortress. This mansion was just smaller than the Cathedral, but still held the same air of magnificence. Made of grey and brown limestone the house stretched up to two or three levels – it was hard to tell. But once they got close enough the group were able to clearly see that the building was an old library.

Sora stared at it for a while before whispering to himself, "They always manage to find the most beautiful and out-in-the-open places for their secret hideouts, don't they?"

7 led the group down the long pathway and through the garden into the side of the building. There, in the wall, was yet another hole just like the one back in the Fortress.

"Through here," She instructed before leading them though and into the library. Here, everyone had to stop to catch their breaths. Stacked high in random piles the size of sky scrapers were millions and millions of books. Old globes, surprisingly dust free sat clustered on benches and chairs and just above their heads magnificent celestial devises hung from the ceiling and over their heads, moving softly with the aid of an invisible wind. The entire room was bathed in a warm candle light.

"Wow …" Sora heard Kairi utter beside him, and he turned to her. She was staring up above them at the detailed constructions of planets and stars, never tearing her gaze away. "Who knew that out of a world so destroyed could come things so …"

"Amazing." Sora finished for her. He smiled, "Yeah, I know."

Up ahead the group noticed 9 stop in front of a large painting on the wall that was cracking and tearing at the edges. The image depicted a building much like the one they were in surrounded by acres of long green grass, wild flowers and tall oak trees with a cloudless blue sky hanging overhead.

He gestured to the painting, looking at 5 and 7. "Is this what it used to look like?"

Everyone joined him by the picture. 5 stepped forward. "I don't know. Probably. There are many other paintings and photographs like this back at the Fortress …"

9 kept looking forward almost hypnotised. "It's so beautiful …"

"Keep up!" An echo sounded from further into the room, and all turned to see 7 waving the over down the hall.

The group wondered down the seemingly endless piles of books until they reached another door leading into a much smaller one that was littered with papers, spyglasses, strange jars filled with unholy substances _no one_ wanted to contemplate too long, and a very large desk and swivel chair smack bang in the middle of the mess.

"What's in here?" Mia wondered, standing on her toes to try and see over a tall tack of books. 7 did not answer, but simple smiled and moved to the left. Taking 9's light staff, created of the pole 2 used as a walking stick and an old light bulb they found on the way there, she shined it over to one of the glasses. Everyone was silent for a moment, waiting in suspense, when suddenly a flash of light gleamed, only for a moment, before something blue shuffled around the jar and poked its head out.

Or _two_ somethings.

The lights flashed again, this time coming from both sides of the jar as two identical Stitchpunks moved out from behind it and into the light. To the four teenagers they were possibly the cutest dolls out of the bunch they'd met yet. They were both small and looked even younger than 6, with striped blue bods over their heads that travelled down their backs. Their skin was also a striped material, made of light blue and white stripes, with a light brown yet of hands and feet. The one on the left had the number 3 printed on the left side of his chest, and the one on the right the number 4. Sora noticed that neither of them held the same trait of zippers or buttons down their torsos like the others.

3 and 4 gave huge smiles that seemed to light up their entire face and dashed up to 5 and 7 so fast it looked like their feet weren't even touch the ground.

4 gave 7 a big hug, making her chuckle and embrace him back just as tightly, and 5 laughed in glee, possibly the first time since they'd met him, as 3 crashed into him.

"They've been here," 5 said in a relieved tone of voice, "This _whole_ time?" They all joined together in a group hug and 4 grinned when 5 patted him on the head.

Kairi grinned brightly at the show of affection and leaned into Sora, "Naww … They're so cute!" Sora grinned back and nodded.

9's eyes widened with shock, and he smiled at the new little Stitchpunks. "Twins?"

9's excited exclamation seemed to startle 3 and 4, and the kids each hid behind 7 and 5. 7 looked back at them and smiled slightly, reassuring them that it was ok and they each moved out an inch.

"They've been hiding here. Lost in the past ..." 7 trailed off when 3 and 4 crawled out from their hiding spots and curiously approached the five newcomers. Their eyes blinked and flashed as they passed over 9, Sora, Kairi, Mia and Dan's bodies. 3 dashed up to the two girls, taking an interest in their hair. He first touched and flipped Kairi's intrigued by the colour, and then did the same with Mia, intrigued by the long length. The girl giggled as he skipped around them with a big smile, poking their shoulders and cheeks, eyes shining with childlike curiosity.

3 did the same with the boys, bouncing over to each one of them and grabbing different parts of their bodies. First he ran over to Dan and stared at the black metal atop his cranium, poking it, wiping his hand over it like he was giving it a polish, and lastly knocking on the metal, so that it made a chiming sound and caused the guardian to wince. The boy then ran over to Sora and lifted his arm up and nudged his leg with his foot, interested with the change of colour all over Sora's body. He played with the hinges of the keyblade master's foot and fingers while he giggled, all the while his eyes flashing like mad. It reminded Sora of someone taking photos.

7 smiled at the group as both boys surrounded 9, lifting his arms in the air, kicking his foot out from under him to check the hinges, and poking him in the armpit, causing 9 to wince and everyone else to laugh.

"They're cataloguing." She explained, gesturing to the little Stitchpunks flashing eyes. She smile and stared fondly as they dashed around and around 9, almost like they were dancing. "They like you,"

9 looked up at her awkwardly before 3 grabbed a hold of his large zipper lining his torso and pulled it down, causing him to gasp and recoil. 3 and 4 recoiled also, feeling that they'd done something wrong or made the older Stitchpunk uncomfortable. That is, until 9's light staff caught their attention. 9, sensing their curiosity in it, gently held it out for the boys to look at. They stared at the pale orange light for a moment for unscrewing it off of the pole and began to snap photos of it, sometimes fighting over who got to hold the light bulb next, tracing the smooth surface and tapping the glass.

"We need your help," 7's voice froze both little Stitchpunks in their tracks and stared at the girl. 7 stepped forward, her voice grave. "We … awakened something –"

9 stopped her, holding an arm up. "No," he shook his head slowly before looking at 3 and 4 sadly, pointing to himself. "I awakened something. Something … something terrible."

3 and 4 visibly shrunk at the use of the negative word. They turned to each other and chattered feverishly, their eyes blinking into the others before looking back at the group questioningly.

9 shifted his weight and leant of his staff. "Um, well it was … big … really big. And …"

"Hell-bent on destroying any and all signs of life?" Dan offered, leaning forward.

9 looked at him and flushed, staring at the ground and rubbing his arm nervously. "Uh, yeah."

3 and 4 turned to each other and chattered silently again, their eyes blinking father than usual. All of a sudden they stopped, turned and dashed over to the middle of the room, beckoning for the others to follow. Everyone shared a glance before shrugging and doing as they were told.

"I'm guessing on that note they've heard of it," Mia piped in. A head the twins had led them over to a book, towering almost ten feet above their head. 4 jumped up of a jar he used as a stool and handed a page over to his brother who turned it over, having to run to the other side to do so.

4 thought for a moment before jumping up on his toes and pointing over to an old black and white newspaper clipping, the picture and inscription almost faded.

The group leaned forward, startled, and without thinking they all shouted, "That's it!"

The twins nodded vigorously and pointed over to another clipping on the next page. This one depicted two men. The first was an old man with balding white hair and a lab coat, seeming to be a scientist. The next was a military looking man, with glasses and a pic covered blazer. They were both standing on either side of a much less intimidating version of the machine, shaking hands. Both were smiling.

"There it is again," Kairi whispered, leaning in toward the picture. Everyone followed.

The headline of the paper read:

**AMAZING NEW INVENTION**

Glorious leader promises progress through technology – Lead Scientist Creates 'BRAIN'.

All stared at the picture in confusion and tried to read some of what the article may have said, but the words were too faded to even try. When they all stared at 3 and 4 for more of an explanation all 3 did was steer his brother over to possibly the only blank wall in that whole library. 4 froze, going stiff, and his eyes began to flash brighter and faster than before. Sora was suddenly reminded of an old film projector. Words began to flash on the wall, and, after some time, images. A voice also began to echo through the room, slightly startling everyone into wondering where it was coming from, when, suddenly they realised with a fright, that 4 had his mouth hanging wide open and the sound was coming right out of _him._

Everyone, though slightly creped out if they must admit, turned their attention back to the screen and as the video rolled out like an old film. The image that appeared in black and white first was of a man in a military uniform, whom everyone recognised from the photo, standing at the back of a car and waving to a street filled with a roaring crowd, cheering and flashing pictures. A narrator's enthusiastic voice boomed through the room,

"_Today the Chancellor presented the latest advancement of technological wizardry to the public."_

The scene changed to the man standing on a stage in a giant hall, smiling closed lipped at a room full of reporters and camera crews. With a wave of his arm, the camera shifted over to where the Chancellor was pointing and the machine thundered into view, raising up with all its many armed glory.

"_Comrades!"_ The narrator bellowed, _"Today dawns a _new area_." _The machine was shown again, this time just the BRAIN, it's eye skimming around the room as it was being attached to it's many arms.

"_Let us praise this new technology!" _The machine rose up into the air, towering over the audience in magnificence. "_Welcome to the age of The Machine!"_

Everyone stared at the film in horror, the images reflecting in their eyes as the film created a montage of different scenes. _"It will create new machines in its image!" _The video showed the BRAIN's many arm's working vigorously to create more of itself, prototypes and others.

"_Machines of PEACE ..."_

Dan couldn't help but snort at the narrator's confident tone when he said that last part.

"_... That will assure a glorious new era of wealth and prosperity of the state!" _Images of menacing looking machines that walked on two legs marched through the streets, before the scene cut abruptly and an image of one of the machines turning to the camera and pointing its large gun at it replaced it. A newspaper article flashed on the screen with a large headline printed in bold:

_**'WAR DECLARED'** _

Still images from an old camera now flashed one by one, the first with the giant two legged gun machines marching deviously along side men in the army, and the next was of the soldiers fighting in the trenches, their bodies blurred at they rushed to fight in battle, with the machines behind them firing bullet upon bullet. It then changed to an image of a lone machine, it's back turned to the camera and firing upon an empty land. Smoke rose from burning tanks and cars in the distance, and the most chilling aspect of the picture that made Kairi and Mia step back into Sora and Dan, was the human hand lying at the bottom left of the lens, covered in mud and blood.

A new head title appeared:

'_**MACHINES TURN AGAINST US!'**_

A new narrator took over from the last one. This voice was female, and sounded like it was coming from a news report. It held no trace of the confidence and glee of the former.

"_Residents are advised to pause for a public address ..." _

An image of the Scientist popped up now on screen, of the old man standing in front of his invention and trying desperately to fight off reporters. An audio of gun shots and people screaming played over the image, and a new newspaper headline appeared:

_**'SCIENTIST ENEMY OF THE STATE'**_

_Chancellor Denounces Machine Inventor - "Traitor has led us astray"_

9 stared at the image of the Scientist. The old man looked at least ten years older than he did in previous pictures, but he didn't think age had anything to do with it. The old man's eyes were wide and dark rimmed, his posture hunched. His mouth was open in a frozen plea and he had one hand out toward the camera, and the other over the machine as if trying to reason with the public that his machine really was intended for _good_. There was another image of the Chancellor in the corner, face contorted with rage.

"_Science has turned its sinister hands against us!" _Images of the machines chasing innocent humans through the streets flashed on the wall, with the same audio as before playing over it.

"_People of our mighty state, JOIN ME IN REPELLING THE IRON FIST OF THE MACHINE!"_

The video slowly morphed from battle scenes to an image of an innocent looking street, deserted and destroyed by the machines, all signs of life extinguished. The video flashed once before ending.

4's eyes flashed a while longer before dimming. He closed his mouth and leaned back into his twin brother, trying to clear his head of the sudden dizziness.

The room was silent. So silent, that a pin could have dripped and it would have rang through their ears. Everyone was still and staring at the back wall with wide eyes and either their mouths hanging open, or feeling too shocked for them to hang open.

For several minutes nobody spoke until Dan finally broke the silence, seeming to sum up everything all in that room were feeling: "Damn."

9 stepped forward almost in a trance and stared at the wall, then at 3 and 4, then down to the ground. "But …" He muttered. Even though his voice was soft it still managed to echo in the large room. "The .. the thing that woke it … that _machine_," He suddenly spun around and addressed the twins, "I-it was round!" The Stitchpunk created the shape with his hands. "A round Talisman, or something. Round and … a-a-and i-imprinted with strange shapes!"

The twins shared a glance before turning to each other for another silent conversation. After a few seconds of chatter, they both turned to 9 and innocently shrugged, stating they had no clue what he was talking about.

Sora stepped forward, "Are you talking about that thing you found? The thing 6 had drawn all over the room?"

"6?" Kairi, Mia and Dan all whispered dryly over Sora's shoulder.

The Keyblader Master turned back and whispered, "I'll explain later."

5 tilted his head, "That strange object with the weird symbols and everything?"

9 nodded. Spotting a quill lying on the floor, 9 picked up the pen and walked over to the book sitting upright against the desk and began to draw a circle. "Th-the shapes corresponded," he divided the circle into three sectors. "It fit perfectly … into the machine. Uh … the BRAIN …" 9 then went on to filling in the details, the strange symbols within each sector. "As if it were _made_ for it …"

Once 9 finished his drawing, alarms went off in 7's head. "I recognise it now!" She ran forward and placed a hand over the drawing. "He was always studying them …"

"We need to see him." 9 turned back to the group, face determined. "We need to see if we can get more out of him about what this thing _really_ is –"

"What?" 7 gasped, spinning at 9 and staring at him as if she'd never seen anything like him. "Go _back? _You _want_ to go _back_ to 1?"

"There's a 1, too?" Mia whispered ridiculously to herself.

9 looked at 7 in the eye, "We have to, 7. If there is a way to stop this thing then –"

7 cut him off again, "And you think _6_ will know?"

"There's a chance –"

"And what do you think 1 will do to us once we get there, hm? We all go back there so that he can, what? Lock us up away again while this nightmare awakens?"

This time 5 stepped forward, pleading, "7, please, I-I think 9 has a point …"

7 didn't listen, but began pacing the room, weighing down what 9 had just suggested. Never – _never_ – in her days had she considered going _back_ to the Fortress and living under 1's rule again. The very idea made her feel sick and disgusted.

The four teenagers stepped forward. "I don't even know what 9's talking about, but even a chance at understanding this thing better than we do know sounds better than trying to fight it with the information we do have. Which, by the way, isn't much." Dan was the first to speak.

Mia stepped forward next, "I agree. United we are the _stronger_ we are. I learnt that the hard way, and I don't want you lot to go down the same path."

"Maybe there's some way we can talk 1 into joining us fight this thing …" Kairi tried.

7 shook her head and stopped pacing. "No. You don't know him – there is no way he'll ever do that. This is _our_ problem, we deal with it."

Sora stepped forward. He was about to shove his foot right down his oesophagus, but this time he was aware of it. "Your problem." Sora said, and everyone turned to him in surprise. "Don't mean to sound rude miss, but it is _your_ problem, not _ours_."

"Sora," Kairi hissed, "What are you doing?"

Sora simply waved her off and continued. "You see, my friends and I, we aren't from here exactly. You wanted to know why we have weird names, 5, well here it is. We weren't _born_ here like you guys, 6, 8 and 1 were."

All the Stitchpunks in the room stared at Sora in confusion and shock, not believing what he was saying. "We are actually from a place very far away from here. Another _world_. It's different, a lot different, and this place is just as scary to us than it is to you guys. Possibly more. We don't even _look_ like this!" Sora pointed to himself and waved a hand over his body. "This form, this place, looks like a Halloween decoration. What we really look like is big. Much bigger than this. We actually look like those humans in the video we just watched. Like the Scientist. Not a doll, a … _Stitchpunk_, but human. Humans who don't belong here – who got stuck here because I decided to go and do something stupid. We don't need to be here – we don't even _want_ to be here."

All eyes were on Sora, and everyone was deadly silent again. The natives couldn't believe what they were hearing. Was this boy, this stranger with amazing skills to pull key-like swords out of thin air and create beautiful golden light with his hands saying that … he wasn't going to help them?

Sora thought back, then concluded: "No. No I don't want to be here. And I think that if you guys were in our shoes right now you'd probably say the same thing. Heck, you _can_ say the same thing _right now_." He pointed at them all, then rested his gaze on 7. "Think about it. If I were to ask you if you would willingly stay in this nightmare of a world, would you even hesitate in saying 'no'? Would you?"

7 stared at Sora in silent shock. He wasn't sure, but 7's head may have moved from side to side just a fraction. "No, you wouldn't. None of you would. If I were to say to you right now that I knew a way out of this place, into a better world, you would be out the door faster then I would be. We _have_ to be here, because we are stuck here. We don't _want_ to be here."

3 and 4, innocent, curious little 3 and 4, looked at each other before bringing their gaze to the ground.

"Exactly the situation _you_ people are in. You don't _want_ to be here, you _have_ to be here. Because this is your home, as depressing as that may sound, and you have to fight for it. Now you aren't going to do that by bickering and standing on the negative side of the road, but by standing together. _Together_. _All_ of you. Because that's the only chance you have." Sora's tone softened, "You've already lost 2, do you guys really want to loose anyone else?"

5's eye filled with sadness and regret, and he too looked to the ground so that the only Stitchpunks still staring as Sora were 7 and 9.

Sora paused for a moment, thinking up the best way to phrase what he wanted to say next. "… But," He began slowly, "Just because we don't want to be here, doesn't mean we don't want to help you."

This line caused 5's and the twins' heads to shoot back up and stare at Sora with even more shock then before. "We want to help you, because we know what it's like to have your home in shambles. Me and Kairi … two years ago our home was taken over, kind of like your was, and there wasn't much we could do. But, eventually, we got it back. And do you know how we did that? By _working together_ and _fighting_. Fighting for our home, for all we had felt. There were six of us. Only six. And here, altogether with all of you, there are nine. You outshine us in numbers, and with Kairi, Mia, Dan and I that is _thirteen_!" Sora exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air. "That's way more then we had on our side! And yet, here you are, 7, refusing to stay together and fight as a team when you now quite probably have a lead as to how you can defeat this thing and take your home back, and you are letting fear of confrontation hold you back?"

This line seemed to wake 7 up. "I am not afraid of 1."

"But you're afraid that he's stronger than you?"

"No!"

"Then what? What is it, 7?"

7 growled in anger and began pacing the room again. It was a moment before she began talking again. "I chose to leave a long time ago so I didn't have to live under him and his _ridiculous_ rules."

9 stepped forward this time and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I don't agree with how 1's prancing around like he's the leader either but … Sora has a point." He looked over to Sora, who smiled, then at Mia and replayed her words. "United we stand. And, also," He looked at Kairi, "I think that if we're strong enough, 1 _will_ listen to reason."

7 spun around and looked him in the eye. "Yes, but you have only known him for, what, three days, 9?" She said. He tone was a lot softer toward him then it was toward Sora. "Me and 5, and the twins, and 2, have had to deal with him for a _long_ time."

9 smiled at her comfortingly. "We'll find a way."

To the side, 5 nodded, "We will." He agreed. 3 and 4 nodded enthusiastically.

Sora waited a moment longer before stepping forward and walking up to 7. "So," He grinned widely. "What'll it be?"

7 stared at him for a second before turning her gaze over to the twins, then at 5, then over Kairi, Mia and Dan before finally resting it on 9, whom had just noticed he still had his hand on her shoulder and furtively removed it.

She looked at Sora again and sighed. "Fine. You are right. You are _all_ right. No use in negativity, I get it now." She smiled up at Sora. "Now, off to go speak to 6."

Sora smiled back at her with the same enthusiasm. In the back of his head, the soft voice of his Nobody whispered, _"Good job, Sorie." _

* * *

**I didn't really like this part in the movie, so I created an alternative, rather than what actually happened: 7 yelling at 9 and then running away. **

**I think that's the longest speech I've ever given Sora. Wow ... **

**Right. Now, I'm exhausted. Going to go off and draw.**

**Please review. **

**Also, if you want, look at this picture of Sora and 9 hiding from the machine. Only if you want. You don't have to. **

**http:/ / honeydripp . Deviantart . com/art/Hide-and-Seek-260068299**

**Oooo**

**o o**

**o**


	38. Cold

_Chapter 38: Cold_

* * *

An electric sensation swept over Kairi's whole body, causing the formerly sleep doused teenage girl to shoot from the ground with a gasp. Lucky for the red-headed princess her companions were so exhausted from the hell they'd just ran through that they did not wake – not one even stirred or moan in their sleep. Kairi rubbed the side of her head, where the strange electric current seemed to emit from, and squinted her eyes, trying to get rid of the fireflies that were now dancing around her due to how fast she'd shot up from the flat plane.

Somewhere near her someone whispered and, acting on instinct, Kairi turned her head to the person lying closest to her. But no, Sora was still fast asleep, laying on his side, back to her. Same went for the others. Kairi sighed in relief, but it wasn't a heartbeat later before the same current surged through her again, and someone groaned.

This caused Kairi to jolt again and groan herself. Next a wince came, and then the sound of someone shushing someone else. But that didn't make any sense; _no one_ was awake. Kairi counted one, two, three … _twelve_ sleeping Stitchpunks and _all_ of them were far too out of it to make any noise what-so-ever in their sleep.

As if the make her situation all the more confusing, a voice whispered in her ear, _"Hey." _

Kairi almost jumped out of her skin, the fright causing her body to grow cold and her heart to begin running like a jet engine. She gasped and whispered, "What?" to the air.

After a moment of silence, and just when Kairi was seriously thinking she was half still awake and half back in the land of the dream time, the voice came again, "_Hello?"_

This was the moment that the princess realised that the voice was shrouded with echoes, and was not actually coming from anything around her, but _inside her head_. Again, freaked out and acting on instinct, Kairi called out, _Namine?_

The voice came back faster this time, dripping with annoyance, "_Do I _sound_ like a Namine to you, Princess?"_

No. No it did not. Now that Kairi listened to it properly, the voice was definitely a male's. _W-who … who are you? _

"_That's not important right now,"_

_And how did you get into my head?_

"_Also not important. Look –"_

_Am I dreaming? _Kairi couldn't help but asking.

This time when the voice answered back it held a trace of a chuckle. _"No, you are NOT dreaming. Listen, I'm really sorry to just burst in on you like this, sweetheart. I know how much princesses need their beauty sleep, but I wouldn't have gone through this amount of trouble to contact you if it weren't important. Oh, and before I forget, because of that you'll also have a bit of a headache in the morning – sorry." _

Kairi processed everything he had just said, but still questions filled her mind, _How _did_ you get into my head? And where's Namine?_

"_Don't worry, Namine is fine. Right here, actually. I'm just using her to talk to you for a bit. No biggie, done this loads of times and nothing ever goes wrong … Well, except for the slight headache on the receivers end. Sorry, again. Argh, great, I'm falling off topic! Look, there is something REALLY important I need to yell at y – I mean, _talk_ to you about." _

Kairi was silent for a moment. She wasn't sure but she might be feeling that headache now. _How important?_

"_... Life or death." _

Kairi froze and bit back a gasp. Uncomfortably she shifted on the ground and pulled her knees into her chest, hugging them. _I'm listening._

"_Ok, first things first, that world you and your comrades are on: TOTAL death trap. And I mean that quite literally. You may or may not have already figured this out, but that world is not in your home universe and you _need_ to get off of it quick. Secondly, you need to find the fastest and safest root back to Broken Kingdom ASAP and when you do, jump into it like it's the line for the biggest thrill ride at the theme park. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"_

Kairi listened the the stranger's words intently, only to have her stomach well up at the end of his short speech. _Um … we did find a Door earlier today, actually, but … _

"_Yeah, I know. This, of course, brings me to my third enquiry. Kairi, I need you to do something for me. NOW."_

Kairi bit her lip nervously. She could hear the deep irritation in his voice loud and clear now. _What is it?_

"_I need you to wake up that _twit_ with the porcupine hair lying next to you and tell him to STOP IGNORING MY GOD DAMNED DOORS!" _

* * *

_**Six Hours Earlier ...**_

Kazmer pulled the hood tighter over his head, shrouding his eyes. He ducked his head low so that he stared at the ground and swept his arms inside his long brown trench coat, trying to conceal whatever warmth his body had left. It wasn't a cold night at all – on the contrary, it was quite warm. The locals displayed this well, walking around the streets shopping, mingling, catching up with neighbours and friends and even dancing – the aftermath of the city's biggest party of the year still had yet to settle down – in open collar togas with short hems and thin straps. It was a fairly humid night in Thebes, but that didn't stop the breath of icy air from escaping The Master's mouth each time the man exhaled.

Twice now he's been approached by a merchant or shop owner trying to sell him their latest gadgets or try their newest recipe – these people swarmed like bees to honey when they sensed a foreigner, and a foreigner he was. Kazmer had only even set foot in Thebes once in his life, and that was … _two_ _years_ ago, if he's counted correctly. It was only brief, and in a much less crowded portion of Olympus Coliseum, and on a personal matter. A personal matter that would very much get him into trouble with The Professor, even though he didn't answer to the man, and still to this day annoyed him to the core that he would stoop to such a level.

He'd spent the better portion of the visit on the outskirts of the actual Coliseum, and his trip into the world's biggest and most populated city was merely a detour. He'd call it a business trip, but that was a lie. Kazmer considered himself very honest man, and could tolerate lying as good as wolf pack could tolerate having their territory invaded. He could actually tolerate quite a lot of things, but lying was never on the list. Lying and the cold. Growing up and living most of his adult life on a world that had only two seasons; Summer and Slightly-Less-Warmer-Summer, Kazmer had never been trained to adapt to the cold. That, unfortunately, is what he had to learn to do quick once stepping into Broken Kingdom, considering the temperature could sometimes reach a minimum of -14 degrees Celsius. There were certainly no heaters in Tenebrae Castle, that's for sure.

Stepping onto the square now, Kazmer silently and discreetly assessed his surroundings from under his hood. The last thing he needed were more merchants. No, he was actually searching for something. Some_one_, to be more precise. At first he tried to think up places where he might be, or attractions that would catch his eye and draw him to. But that was no use, considering he knew absolutely _nothing_ about him. Then he thought he just might look around for a bit, ask the locals for any sightings, carry the Wanted poster around for a reference, pretend he's on holiday. But that was no use either. If Kazmer were on holiday he wouldn't be wasting his time searching a huge world for one little boy who was making his life _very_ difficult at the moment, and he _definitely_ would be somewhere where the temperature was over the average sunbathing preferences.

He was tired of being on his feet all day, tired of getting watches shoved up his nose every time he turned the corner, he was downright _freezing to death_ just walking around and he really didn't want to be in that noisy world any longer, no matter how dismally beautiful it may be. Whilst The Master was finally considering stepping into the quiet forest to wait a Door out – no matter how strange it may sound, Kazmer found that the fastest means of travel through worlds was via Broken Kingdom – when a voice, seeming to appear out of thin air (as always) called out to him,

"You're out of luck, old man. He's not here." Kazmer knew very well who the speaker was without having to turn around. The bitter, dry and slightly less cynical than his own tone was one he'd had to endure countless times before. A young voice, laced with the faintest of a Southern drawl that came and went as the wind changed. Kazmer managed a grimace. _Stefan_.

"He never was here," Stefan continued. "I should know – I've been in this town for three … _freaking_ … days."

At this Kazmer frowned and turned around. Stefan was leaning up against an ally wall, his arms and legs crossed, blue eyes to the cracked tiles that were almost as cold as the look in his tired sapphire orbs. The thing that struck Kazmer most about the appearance of the fifteen-year old was the heavy looking jacket draped on his back.

At this, The Master grinned just. "Are you _cold_, Stefan?" His voice sounded hoarse and almost shaky, but the boy in question didn't notice.

Stefan brought his icy gaze up to The Master, and spat, "It is none of your damn business what I feel." Stefan took in Kazmer's hunched stance and narrowed his eyes, tiling his head. "Besides, shouldn't I be asking _you_ that question?"

Kazmer weighed this, and grinned even more, "Possibly. But you could go so far as calling this _normal_ for me. _You_ however, that is another story. Looks like a very thick coat you have there, son."

Stefan glared and didn't answer, only pulled the dark blue coat tighter around his body. Kazmer changed subjects, "What did you mean when you said you have been here for three days?"

"Just that, ah've been here for _three days_. What, you getting' dumb now?" Stefan teased.

"No, it is just odd. Why are you sticking around when you can be off somewhere else. Can't you call a Door whenever you feel like it?"

Stefan shifted positions. The soft warm breeze blew his long almost black locks around his face, though it did nothing for the body temperature of both males. Stefan pulled a lock behind his ear before finally speaking again, "I didn't feel like it."

"... You didn't _feel_ like it?"

The teenager shock his head, "No."

Kazmer stared. _… Now, this is odd … _"Finally given up on finding that brother of yours?"

"No!" Stefan spat, his tone just as icy as both their bodies. Well, maybe just Kazmer's. Still that was all the information he offered.

The Master stepped closer to Stefan and stopped when he was standing about a foot or two in front of the boy. "If you are in a world you are frustrated to stay in, but can't be bothered calling a Door so you can leave it … what are you moping about, Stefan?"

Stefan tried not to flinch. Sometimes it still came as a shock how The Master could hit the nail so dead on all the time. _He_ was the mind reader, not this scar face. "I'm not moping about anything, Kazzy. Don't you have somewhere else to – "

"You _are_ moping. Don't lie to me, boy. And you are going to tell me what it is."

Stefan crossed his arms tighter over his chest and leaned back some ways. But, surprisingly, he found himself confessing. "I saw her here. Three days ago."

"Who?"

"Who do you _think_?" He hissed. "Amalia Ravenhart. I saw her here and I … didn't approach or make myself known to her. Just like I usually don't."

Kazmer frowned at the news. The last time he'd heard that name was … Well, he couldn't even remember. "She was _here?_ Why?"

Stefan shrugged, "Don't know. But she isn't any more. She left … three _freaking_ days ago." Stefan kicked a stone out from under him, which flew all the way across the short square and ricocheted off the adjacent wall.

Kazmer rubbed his chin, analysing Stefan's reaction. "She left …"

"Yes!"

"And you didn't approach her …"

"No."

"Why the hell not?" It slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it.

Stefan recoiled slightly at the outburst, but was nonetheless able to regain his composure, like always. "Why the hell should I? She's not my problem … got bigger problems to deal with …"

Kazmer kept on staring. The teenager wasn't going to admit this but his dark blue gaze was beginning to make him uncomfortable. Eventually, Kazmer said, "But you still care about her,"

"Again, none of you business." Stefan shot back, surprised by the statement the older man threw at him. He shook his head and made to step out of the ally and into the square, but The Master held up a hand to stop him.

"She just left on her own?"

Stefan sighed, not believing the conversation was about to restart. Still, he found himself turning back around and glaring at The Master, arms still tightly crossed around his torso. "Um, no, she didn't leave here on her own."

This was interesting. "Then who with?"

Stefan shifted weight again. "With the King's two lackeys. The mutated dog and duck and … this guy."

"'This guy'?"

The boy groaned and threw his hands up in exasperation, having just about enough with the man, "Yes! Some random guy I've never seen before! She went to the party, did her little dance – or at least tried to – and the next thing I know she's filling them all in on the highs and lows of Broken Kingdom and then she's out the door!" He paused to take a breath and calm himself. "It seems as though they're bound, too."

Kazmer frowned. He did know who this "guy" was, but he wasn't about to tell Stefan that. "All of them?"

"Yes, all." He hissed again, than paused, his eyes and expression softening. "Is, um, is Sora bound … as well?"

Any other day, Kazmer would have just grimaced and walked away, refusing to answer a question like that. But today was Sunday. "Yes, Stefan. Yes he is." He responded and watched as the light came back on in the boy's eyes, along with a tinge of hope. "But, if the Wizard and Knight were travelling with this other boy instead of your brother, then don't you think it might have been wise to approach him?"

The light went out as fast as it came. Stefan had his reasons for not approaching him. Stubbornness was one of them. The fact that he didn't want to _talk_ to this guy, was another. Silently, he shook his head. Kazmer sighed, staring around at the lights that lit the windows of homes and shops, and the pretty, multicoloured ones that hung from the roofs of them, creating a mosaic on the tiled streets.

"I suppose you haven't heard," Kazmer suddenly said, catching Stefan's attention again.

"... Heard what?"

"We have been monitoring your brother's every move once he stepped foot on Terra Mortis. But since you didn't know about that, I guess you wouldn't know that …" Kazmer paused dramatically, mocking the boy.

Stefan growled, "What?"

"... That he completely disappeared off our radar four days ago."

The teenager stared, shocked at the information he'd just received. "What? What do you mean 'disappeared'?"

"The Keyblade Master and his little friends stepped through a door one night, and once they did they were gone. Just like that. And we now know why that is. Because your older brother is no longer in this universe, but has managed to get himself stuck in another."

Stefan's eyes widened drastically as a churning sensation hammered at the pit of his stomach. "What?" He managed to chock out. His heart was pumping so hard he could hear it in his ears and beads of sweat were beginning to form atop his brow. Outer Dimensional worlds are bad … _very_ bad.

"No," He shook his head and began pacing the floor. "No, no, no, no … But … _no_, th-that can't be possible. Doors leading to other dimensions hardly ever show up in Broken Kingdom … no _way_ … there must be a mistake you that computer of yours!"

Kazmer grinned slightly. "There is nothing wrong with our machine, Stefan. Your brother and his friends are trapped in an Outer Dimensional world."

Stefan continued, "But … you know what happens when people from one universe step onto a world in another. Especially if they have to change forms to be there. Eventually … after a while … their bodies will start to reject the world. Th-they revert back to their normal form and …" Stefan forced himself to stop talking and squeezed his eyes shut, trying not to think about it.

Kazmer's grin grew wider and he leaned up against the wall. His breath was still coming out visible, but the cold bothered him less now. "Seems we have a bit of a predicament here, don't we?"

Stefan didn't even look like he'd heard him. "I'll send a Door. I will send a Door and get them off that world."

Kazmer snapped his fingers, "Yeah, you could do that, if it doesn't kill you in the process and you somehow manage to locate the world they are one, because it's got me." He shrugged.

"I'll do it. I will – I'll find a way. I always do –"

"Go home, Stefan." He cut in. "Wherever that may be. There is nothing for you _here_."

Stefan lifted his head to look the man straight in the eyes. His large and painful looking scar was always the one thing Stefan avoided looking at for longer than necessary, but this time, it was all he _could_ look at. A dark jagged line that passed over his eyelid from forehead down to his mouth. It was the most horrible thing you could ever see, this terrible scar polluting the man's once handsome face. He still _was_ handsome; tall and powerful with dark brown hair that ended just above his chin, sticking out at the tips. He wasn't old, either – maybe in his early 40s or late 30s, if Stefan had to guess. But it was the cold stare in his eyes, eyes that were so dark yet still light enough to be considered blue, that completely wrecked everything above all. The evil stare complete with secrets no one could ever know or even guess, concealed behind a thick glass. Eyes that have had to make split second decisions, that have had to make or end the lives of innocent people …

Stefan stared at Kazmer a little while longer before slowly turning and making his way back down the street, buttoning the coat up now. Before he completely disappeared around the corner, Stefan stopped and looked back. "You're always less cruel to me on Sundays … when you're cold. Also, you might wanna start sending Heartless out to worlds Sora _isn't_ on. People are beginning to notice."

* * *

Stefan barrelled through the door like he was running for his life, ultimately causing him to loose his footing on the rocky surface and collide face first with the hut. He landed back on the ground with a grunt, little fireflies dancing in his proverbial vision. Just beside him there was the sound of feet running across wood followed by the sound of a creaky door swinging open. The next thing Stefan knew he had a crossbow pointing at his nose.

Reflexively, he held his hands up, still lying on the ground, and muttered. "It's alright, Jay-Jay. Only me."

A young boy popped his head into view and glared at the teenager on the ground. He didn't put his crossbow down. "I know." He said. "You said you would only be a few hours. You were gone 68 hours and 32 minutes. Where were you? And I told you never to call me Jay-Jay." Here, the boy finally removed his bow from Stefan's nose and stretched out a hand, waiting for him to take it. Once he did Stefan rose shakily to his feet.

Stefan tucked a bang behind his ear and grinned at the boy apologetically. "I'm sorry, Jaymie. I got held up."

Jaymie frowned and placed his hands on his hips, swinging his large bow on to a hock attacked to a sash over his shoulder. "Got held up?" He mocked Stefan's voice. "What were you moping about this time?"

Stefan almost face-planted, staring at the boy in exasperation. "Seriously? I wasn't _moping!_"

Jaymie rolled his eyes and grinned. He'd know him to long. "Yeah, whatever you say. Dinner's getting cold." The boy stepped toward the door and stopped, mocking forget. "Oh, wait, it already _did_ get cold. _Three days ago!_"

With that Jaymie stomped through the door and slammed it behind him. Stefan winced and turned toward the sea, the sunset painting it a magical orange colour. The sad thing was that this is probably as close to paradise as he'll ever get, an old abandoned hut by the sea. Stefan didn't know where it was exactly; a small island off the coast of Atlantica, maybe. Or Neverland? He never thought to check. But wherever it was it was quiet and secluded and safe, and that was good enough for now. The hut was nice, too. Two story with an attic and basement, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a living room. It could be a little creepy when the wind picked up at night, but that was just fine.

As beautiful as the sight may be, it was a little too quiet for Jaymie sometimes. Only thirteen years old, Stefan hated leaving him alone by himself sometimes, especially if it meant a trip longer than a few hours, even though Jaymie always said he didn't mind. He was strong and oddly mature for his age, and he could shoot a sparrow from a mile away – all he had to hear was the sound of the wings beating and he'd have a catch in under 60 seconds. Jaymie was the most intellectual kid Stefan had ever met, with an alarming precision as a natural talent, but Stefan could see how scarred he can get. Sometimes the crick in the floorboards or the howl of the wind was yet another stranger coming to take him away from his family.

With light blue eyes and chestnut hair that ended at points atop his head and beside his left ear that bounced up and down whenever he got excited, with a huge grin that could make anyone's day a whole lot brighter, he was odd company for someone as cynical as Stefan, but he was good. Annoying, but good. Stefan was glad he'd found Jaymie just under a year ago.

Sighing, Stefan kicked a pebble into the water and walked inside. The inside was just as glamorous as the ivory covered exterior, with wooden walls painted a soft cream colour with contrasted dark red curtains. Strangely enough there was a fireplace in the living room, but they only even lit it if they were desperate – what with the house being made of wood and all. Stefan didn't think anything of it, but Jaymie practically singed him with his eyes if he tried to light it without first consulting him.

He found Jaymie in the kitchen washing some dishes. There was no electricity, but they had running water, hot and all. Stefan never thought to check that out either, but if it was there and they didn't have to pay anything for it, who cared, right?

On the table was a strange mess on a plate Jaymie hadn't touched yet – Stefan's dinner, he guessed. He hesitated by the door and watched Jaymie as he cleaned plates and glasses.

Drying off a large round plate and picking up another one, Jaymie stole a glance at Stefan and noticed his coat. "You cold, Stefan?"

Stefan fought the urge to groan. "A tad."

"... You wanna light the fireplace?"

"... No." Some time passed, maybe two or three minutes, before Stefan chose to break the silence. "Sora's landed himself in a bit of … trouble."

Jaymie snorted. "What's my dopey cousin done now, hm?"

"Got himself stuck on a world out of this dimension."

Jaymie stopped washing and leaned up against the counter. He sighed, "Jeez, there's always something isn't there …"

Stefan had never explained the full extent of being trapped in an Outer Dimensional world to Jaymie because he didn't want to scare him. All the kid knew was that it wasn't good. He wasn't sure why he waited until Jaymie had a arm full of pots and pans before unfolding the next bomb shell on him, "I also saw Amalia."

Jaymie stopped where he stood and stared out at the older teenager with wide eyes. All the Tupperware slid out of his arms and crashed onto the black and white tiles, the loud chime echoing through the house. " … Oh." Was all Jaymie said before he dropped to his knees to try and pick all the pans up, his hands shaking. Stefan ran over to his little cousin and began helping him, scooping up a lot more than Jaymie did.

"Well, no wonder you were late."

Stefan stared at the boy once they were both back on their feet. Jaymie's excited grin suddenly returned, "What did she say? How is she?"

The teenager turned and broke eye contact. Shrugging he answered, "I don't know, I didn't speak to her."

"You didn't … what?" Jaymie yelled, not believing what he was hearing. With one swift movement all the pots and pans were thrown back into the sink, creating yet another loud chime and causing Stefan to wince. "Why not?"

He groaned, not believing this conversation was coming up _again_. "Because she isn't my problem any more!"

"But you love her?"

Stefan shot back around and glared at Jaymie, shocked. "No!" He stopped, thought about it, and corrected, "Well, yes, but not in the way you think. She was my best friend, James."

Jaymie made a grimace at the use of his full name, but ignored it. "I know she's you best friend, Stef. So wouldn't that have driven you to go up to her?"

"Usually, yes, but …"

"But what?"

Stefan shook his head and tried to ignore the expectant look in Jaymie's light blue eyes. Outside the sun just in the middle of setting, so they'll need to put some lights on soon. "Nothing, Jaymie. I just … Look, when I found out about Sora I … couldn't focus on anything else. I had to tear down all the posters that moron put up, and now I have to find him and put a Door smack in front of his face to walk through. I'm busy …"

Jaymie sat that the dinner table and stared at his hands. In a small voice he asked. "You … you aren't going back out, are you?"

Stefan stared at the boy with a soft expression. Slowly he walked up to the table and placed a hand atop of Jaymie's head, lightly ruffling his hair. "No, Jaym, I'm not going back out. … I really am sorry, you know that, right?"

Jaymie looked Stefan in the eyes and nodded, smiling softly. "Yeah, I know. Now, go do your thing and find Sorie. You're gonna need lots of rest. I'll just … go read a book, or something, 'cos that's how boring I am." He said sarcastically before sending Stefan to his room.

* * *

Stefan invited the familiar feeling of his conciousness slipping from him, and embraced the sensation of being pulled under into a deep sleep. Instead of actually falling into a comatose state, like most people do – _ordinary_ people – Stefan focused and broadened his mind even more whilst not breaking that thin string between conciousness and unconsciousness. The tugging just beneath his cranium increased, and the feeling of being pulled into the mattress took over.

Stefan's surroundings were black and his body felt cold, like he was falling further and further into water. The decent slowed into something more rhythmic and peaceful, his body swaying from side to side, turning and turning around as he came closer and closer to the stain glass platform below. Finally, the falling stopped, and Stefan landed softly and gracefully on his feet, just like always.

Under his feet Stefan's mural shined up at him, casting a pale blue and almost eerie glow on his face. But for his own reasons he did not look at it, but stared out into the dark abyss around him. Now, where to go? That was a completely different story. Being a Walker meant that Stefan was able to visit the murals of any person he wished, family of blood relation being the only exception. For some reasons that Stefan had yet to figure out but nonetheless annoyed the heck out of him, Stefan could not visit the murals and speak to any family members. If he could, his life would be a whole lot easier.

All around him were invisible passages. Some were stairs, taking him above or below into the realm of minds. Others were paths; a little ways more away than where the stairs led him to. Stefan would take a path if he wished to find someone, but didn't know where to start looking. Then, lastly, there were roads. These roads were long and vast and could lead him to a million different places in the minds of sleepers. These were the ones he took when he didn't know what he was looking for.

Stairs led him to the minds of people he knew, so he didn't really like those ones on the account that the people he visited would sometimes get annoyed and kick him out. The roads were long and led to the unknown. They could sometimes be dangerous and, if Stefan had to admit, a little scary. The paths he liked. They were comforting, he'd go so far as to calling them. The passages changed appearance and became visible once Stefan and only Stefan stepped foot on them. Any other person would step off of their platform, find themselves standing on thin air and begin to panic thus resulting in the path breaking and them falling to a sleepy doom.

Smiling to himself, Stefan turned to his right and began walking, stepping onto a familiar red, blue and yellow crystal path. Best to start _somewhere_. He went off.

Just like always the surroundings changed from a creepy black sky with purple clouds to something more comforting; a smoky atmosphere, taking on the appearance of a deep wood. The grass and trees materialised around him, tall green structures reaching up higher than he could see, long teal blades of grass sprouting from the invisible ground and swaying in the wind. Stars began to form above his head, a pot-pourri of one hundred different colours, twisting and dancing around each other. The light that was provided for Stefan to see came from the crystal path he walked along.

It wasn't always like this, to wood appearing. Sometimes it was as simple as a city side walk, or a long bridge, one that stretched on for miles and no car would ever drive along. Other times it was a dessert country side, with cacti and shrubs in the distance. But the wood was always Stefan's favourite, that and the dessert, because you never know what the next mural's entrance will come disguised as. A lamp post leading off into a different path, an old inn, a lone house in the middle of nowhere. So much more interesting then the typical apartment door he'd have to go through if he were walking along in the city scape.

Suddenly, a warm orange light alerted Stefan, bringing his attention forward. There, in the distance was an elegantly designed lamp post, with a sign instructing him to walk "This Way".

Stefan smiled again and walked up to the lamp post, following the silent instruction, _First customer … _

* * *

**Ok, this world has stretched on longer than I initially intended it to, so I'm gonna be cutting it short very soon. Maybe in like one chapter or two. The only reason that _The Emperor's New Groove_ world didn't stretch this long is because I started about _half way _through the movie, as opposed to this. With _9_, I stared all the way at the _beginning_. I REALLY don't want this world to go on for 10 chapter – I didn't even want it to go on for longer than 6. And, then, I discovered my mistake. **

**I also REALLY want to join the two groups up soon, but first Riku, Donald, Goofy and Amalia will have one more world to themselves before they meet up. I've mapped out HOW exactly they are going to meet again, so I'm not making this whole thing up as I go along, I promise. I've actually mapped out most of how everything in this fic will play along, but I can't give you an estimation of how many chapters this thing will run to just yet. **

**Anyway, on another note: new character! Yay!**

**And on yet another note: I will just go ahead and tell you that most, if not all, of the characters in this story are connected _somehow_. So please don't get annoyed if you find more characters are related to another character, or someone has known someone in the past, or if I'm blowing your mind up with all these relations and connections, etc. **

**Sorry, I get a little self concious sometimes if I'm annoying or confusing my readers. **

**And yes, I'm feeling a little … off … at the moment, so sorry if any part of this rant came out as … rude? Yeah, I don't know. Also, get used to the cliffhangers. **

**Unedited chapter. **

**Please Review. **

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